Car Trouble
by flyin'rabbit
Summary: Blaine's car decides to break down... in Lima, of all places! AU from 2x05.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: Hello :) Another one-shot... It's AU this time, set some time during 2x05, and, well, hopefully you'll enjoy it! Just for the record, I know nothing about cars, so I'm sorry if I'm spewing nonsense here and there. If you feel obliged to point it out, don't hesitate to do so. And... I hope I kept the characters somewhat in character. Not sure if I succeeded. Anyway, happy reading :)

**Disclaimer**: This is a _fanfiction _site. Of course I do not own Glee or its characters.

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Blaine cursed inwardly as his car started making weird noises all of a sudden. Smoke seemed to erupt from underneath the front hood and he just _knew_ that he should've seen a mechanic as soon as his parents had pointed out to him that it had been quite some time since the car had been checked over. Now he was still a couple of hours away from Columbus, where his parents lived, and his car probably wouldn't make it until there. Why had his parents forced him to visit his grandparents in Evansport _this weekend_, on his own nonetheless?

He quickly took the nearest exit, but then it hit him. Where in the world was he even? He really should have paid better attention to the road. Flicking on the navigation in the car, he slowed down a bit – he didn't dare drive too fast if he was going to be peering at the small screen, and who knew what would happen if he just shut the engine down entirely. It would be just his luck if he would be unable to start the car again.

He appeared to be in Lima – _just fantastic_, Blaine thought. Sure, he knew of the place, but he'd never been there. Well, there's a first time for everything. With great pain, he managed to find the nearest car repair shop around – just a few blocks down, by the looks of it. Hopefully he'd get there successfully.

"Come on, come on," he muttered to the car – and himself – as he drove through the deserted streets. He was glad that they were deserted, actually – that way, it was less of a hassle for him to get to the garage. He hoped that it was open, though – it was a Saturday, after all.

As he arrived on what looked like a small parking lot, his car promptly gave up. Barely having the time to pull the handbrake, Blaine yelped – oh, he was so happy no one was around to actually witness him doing so.

Climbing out of the car, he looked at the garage he had reached. It wasn't as fancy as Blaine was used to, but it could've been much worse. This one actually looked pretty decent, and open as well.

A tall man with a cap on his head walked out to greet him. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked once he reached Blaine, who could only gesture at the car helplessly.

"It uh… just suddenly broke down," he replied lamely. "There was a sputtering noise and smoke and… I guess that if this place had been fifty feet down the street, I wouldn't have made it."

The man – obviously not a talker – just nodded and opened the hood. More smoke came out, and Blaine tried (but failed) to hold back a cough. He should never become a mechanic, that was for sure.

After studying what was inside carefully for about half a minute, the man sighed. "How long has it been since anyone's taken a look at this?" he asked in a tone that indicated that he suspected to already know the answer anyway.

"Uh…" Blaine stammered, feeling like a little boy who'd done something he shouldn't have (which was probably the case, but whatever). "I don't know. A few years?"

Shaking his head, the man told him, "I was just working on some other cars, actually. Do you mind if – "

"No, that's fine," Blaine said hastily. "Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."

The man just blinked. "I was actually going to ask you if you would mind if someone else helped you out here. It's nothing that can't be repaired, by the looks of it, but it definitely needs to be fixed."

"Oh, sure," Blaine replied. "That's fine with me."

The man nodded again and walked back inside. Blaine just hoped it wasn't going to rain anytime soon. It would probably have been better if his car could be taken inside, but that wasn't going to happen, he thought. He could hear the man shout something to someone, and a minute later, Blaine heard footsteps.

Turning around, he was pretty surprised, to say the least. The boy – who couldn't be much older than Blaine himself, if he was even older than him in the first place – did not look like your average mechanic. When he started to speak, Blaine realised that he didn't _sound_ like an average mechanic either.

"Sorry, what?" Blaine asked, having completely zoned out for a moment.

"I said, there's a coffee machine and some magazines inside, if you want to wait there," the boy repeated, passing Blaine and taking a peek at the car. "Yikes. What _did_ you do?"

Blaine cringed. "I have no idea," he admitted, and the boy nodded, as if he'd heard that story at least a thousand times before. Given the fact that most people wouldn't know how to fix a car, that was probably the case. "And thanks, but I guess I'll just stay here."

Shrugging, but not looking up, the boy replied, "Suit yourself, then. Just so you know, there's no way I could make this any worse, so if you're concerned about your car – well, you should've thought of that before."

"I know," Blaine just responded, hoping that the issue could be dropped. He wasn't sure what to make of the superior tone the boy used, but it was a little unsettling. Besides, it was strange as well that the man from earlier had assured him that nothing too bad had happened to his car, and this boy made it sound like some enormous disaster.

Without him noticing, the boy had left, but soon, he was back, carrying a whole assortment of tools. As he started to work, Blaine just stood there, not quite knowing what to do. So he decided to just make some small talk. He didn't know if that was a smart idea – talking to a guy who was trying to fix your car – but something about this boy made him curious.

"You don't look like a mechanic," he started in a lame attempt to strike up a conversation, and the boy huffed. He didn't look up, though.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, the air of superiority not having left his voice.

"Well…," Blaine started eloquently before drifting off. "I mean, the man that came out earlier… he looked like how I would describe a mechanic. But you… you're not really…"

"Manly?" the boy offered, sounding annoyed now.

"No!" Blaine said quickly. "That was not what I meant. You're not really big and burly and rough looking and stuff like that." God, he really was making a fool out of himself.

"Maybe that's because I'm not technically a mechanic," the boy told him, shrugging. Blaine did a double take.

"Wait… so they're just letting you fool around with my car?" Maybe he was wrong about this garage after all.

Now, the boy turned towards him and put his hands on his hips, glaring furiously. "Look, I've been helping out my dad here since I was four feet tall. So while I'm not officially a mechanic, that doesn't mean I'm going to break down your car even more. Not that that's even possible, but that's not the principle of the thing here."

"Oh." Blaine was lost for words for a moment. "That was your dad?" he asked, gesturing towards the shop. "Sorry, I didn't – "

"As do most people," the boy interrupted him, turning back to the car again. "I just help him out here in weekends, when there's no school."

"You're still in high school, then?" Blaine couldn't say he was very surprised, actually.

"Yes," the boy replied stiffly. Then, he sighed, and muttered, mostly to himself. "It could've been worse. At least you didn't ask if I was in middle school. That's happened far too often." As Blaine smiled at this, the boy added, "And don't you dare laugh. It's not funny."

"Sorry," Blaine apologised. "So do you go to school here in Lima?"

"What is this, a police interrogation?" the boy shot back. Before Blaine could reply, they were interrupted. By a phone.

The boy peeled off his gloves and fished his phone out of the overall he was wearing. As he turned around, Blaine couldn't help but marvel over the fact that this boy had really nice hands. No wonder he wore gloves while working on cars. Then again, his face had the same colour. Smiling slightly, Blaine decided that he might have found a new favourite skin colour.

Wait, what?

Where did that come from?

"I'm sorry, Mercedes," the boy was now saying, "I can't go to the mall with you today." A brief pause, and then – "I'm helping my dad out at the garage." Another pause. "No, it's actually busy today."

Feeling a little guilty, Blaine stared at his shoes. Since that wasn't interesting in the least, he looked back up, and found that the boy was now facing him again. He was still on the phone, though.

"Oh, you'll do great," he told whomever was on the other end. "Besides, it's your first solo this year." Solo? Now _that_ definitely caught Blaine's attention. "No, Mercedes," the boy continued, "she won't. Rachel's not going to steal it away from you." Then, more sullenly – "Yeah, I know. But I doubt Rachel will suddenly want to play a transvestite just so she can have that solo. I mean, she's crazy, but I don't think that'll happen. Mr Schuester won't let her."

Suddenly, the boy looked at Blaine, as if remembering only now that he was still there. Realising that he'd been staring quite blatantly at the other boy's face, Blaine reddened. He almost felt ashamed at having been caught, but on the other hand, what should he be ashamed of? He'd never seen quite a face like this boy's, which was, in one word, flawless. He could admire it, couldn't he?

Then, the boy spoke up again. "No, Mercedes, he won't rewrite the script so that Janet gets to sing all the songs, not even if Rachel would threaten to quit. That would be absurd." With a small grin, he added a few seconds later, "Of course you can go ballistic on him if he does."

The phone call lasted another minute or two, but Blaine wasn't listening anymore. Well, he _was_ listening – to the boy's voice. Not to the conversation.

"So, what was that about?" he asked as the boy turned back to the car.

"Are you always this nosy?" the boy retorted, and Blaine felt offended for a moment, before realising that he wasn't exactly being polite.

He therefore decided against throwing in some cheesy pick-up line – that would be severely out of character for him anyway; besides, the boy's father was probably within hearing distance if the boy decided to call him, and Blaine had no car.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "I'm just…" He trailed off, unable to quickly come up with something.

"Bored?" the boy offered, and Blaine shrugged. That was part of the reason, at the very least.

"Yes, bored," he affirmed. "And… I don't know. I guess you're right. I'm curious." The boy just nodded, and Blaine figured that he'd better shut up. Although, one more question couldn't hurt, right? "Can you at least tell me your name?" He didn't think he'd ever asked for a mechanic's name, but this could be the exception on the rule, right? Especially since they had come to the conclusion earlier on that this boy wasn't really a mechanic.

The boy pushed himself away from the car and pulled off one of his gloves again. Holding out his right hand for Blaine to shake, he said, "I'm Kurt. And you are?"

"Blaine," he replied simply, feeling a smile coming up. Kurt eyed him oddly for a moment before giving him a small smile in return and then further inspecting the car.

"That was my best friend," he suddenly told Blaine, deciding that now was, apparently, a perfect time to respond to the earlier question. "She was in the middle of a fashion crisis and needed my help. I'm sure she'll be fine. And if not, we'll just hit the mall next week after school sometime."

"Hmhm." Blaine didn't know what else he could say to that. As he noticed Kurt scrutinising him closely for a second, he asked, "What?"

"Nothing," the other boy said quickly. "Just – nothing." After another minute, he added, "And she was worried about her solo. Our Glee club's trying to put together a performance of the Rocky Horror Show."

"Seriously?" Blaine didn't know what he was more excited about – the fact that there was actually a Glee club doing the Rocky Horror Show or the fact that Kurt was in a Glee club. "I don't think we could ever pull that off. No, I know we couldn't. Downside of an all boys school, you see."

"You're in a Glee club?" Kurt sounded just as surprised as Blaine had felt a minute before.

"I sure am," he replied confidently. "We're called the Warblers."

Kurt gave him another small smile and shook his head. "Never heard of it, sorry."

Blaine shrugged as Kurt grabbed another tool to work on his car. "That's alright. We haven't been able to get through Sectionals in years. For some reason, we're always up against Vocal Adrenaline." A second later, he added, "Wait. You're not in Vocal Adrenaline, are you?"

Kurt snorted. "No, of course not. I'm not a soulless automaton, thank you very much."

"That's a relief," Blaine told him, grinning widely. "So what group are you in?"

"New Directions," Kurt replied, and now it was Blaine's turn to look confused. Thankfully, Kurt didn't notice that. "But I suppose you haven't heard of us. We're pretty new, actually. The club was formed last school year, and when we came in third at Regionals in the spring, we thought we were done for. Somehow, we got another year to prove ourselves."

New Directions. Blaine had to remember that for whenever he was bored and didn't know what sort of stuff to watch on YouTube.

"But you're doing Rocky Horror?" Blaine asked. "That's pretty cool."

"Hmhm," was Kurt's only response.

"Are there any tickets available for that performance?" Blaine asked eagerly. He definitely wanted to hear Kurt sing now.

"If we can actually go through with it, I guess there will be," Kurt stated vaguely. "Unless this is some ploy of you wanting to spy on us just in case we'll have to face each other at Sectionals."

"I would never dream of doing such a thing," Blaine told him earnestly, but Kurt didn't seem to believe him. "Nobody at Dalton would. We're honourable like that." Well, that might have been an exaggeration, but Kurt didn't need to know.

"Dalton?" Kurt questioned, his voice muffled by the fact that he was speaking straight at Blaine's engine or whatever he was working on.

"My school," Blaine clarified. "A classic all boys boarding school."

"Sounds very honourable," Kurt remarked, and it took Blaine a couple of seconds to figure out that he was being (very) sarcastic.

"We are!" he protested. "Everyone is equal and gets treated the same."

"As wonderful as that sounds," Kurt retorted, "I don't see what it has to do with spying on potential competition."

Huh, that was a good one. "I suppose it's just not in our natures," Blaine said after a few seconds.

"So, let me get this straight," Kurt said, standing upright and stretching. "You go to an all boys boarding school where everyone is nice and honourable and equal? Because that sounds pretty surreal to me."

As if on cue, a car halted in front of the garage. The driver didn't pull into the parking lot, but left the car at the street. Four boys came out – tall, big, intimidating and gross, Blaine summarised for himself – and approached the two of them. Although, by the looks of it, they were approaching Kurt, who narrowed his eyes at them, but stayed where he was.

"Don't you have anything better to do? It's the _weekend_," he told them, and Blaine was surprised to hear the superior tone in his voice again. He didn't think he could pull something like that off.

"What's up, homo?" one of the boys sneered at him, moving closer and closer and then pushing Kurt backwards. He stumbled, but remained on his feet, fortunately not giving the other boys another reason to laugh at him.

"Is the little fag playing with cars again?" another boy mocked him, casting one glance at Blaine's car. "And who's this?" Apparently, Blaine wasn't doing quite enough to just blend in with the background. He didn't even know these kids, but they really reminded him of the bullies he'd had to face a few years ago. Why wasn't he doing something now? He could tell them to back off, or scream for help, or – anything. But he was just _standing_ there, like a frightened little boy.

"A customer," Kurt said defiantly, his hands on his hips as he glared up at the four boys who surrounded him and were looking down at him as if he was some sort of prey.

"And does he know what you are?" the first boy asked. He must've been spitting at Kurt, for the smaller boy made quite a show of wiping off his face. "Does he know that you're a freak of nature? _Fag_," he spit again.

Blaine was still rooted to the spot. It was as if he was watching himself, all those years ago.

"Hey!" All six boys whipped around to see Kurt's father storming outside, a murderous glare on his face. "Get away from him!" The four boys hastily made their exits, climbing back into the car and speeding off.

"Thanks, dad," Kurt said in a small voice, staring at his hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't think – "

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Kurt," his father told him sternly. "It's those kids who should be sorry. They should be ashamed of themselves." He sighed. "Are you okay, kiddo?"

"I'm fine, dad," Kurt replied quietly. "Honestly. It's not as if they haven't done this before."

"Well, they shouldn't," his father said firmly. If anything, Blaine was even more surprised now. He knew he shouldn't stereotype, but he hadn't expected a man like this to be so… accepting towards people who were gay. He seemed so intimidating. But looks could really deceive, it appeared. "And you – " Now, the man turned to Blaine, and he quickly rethought that statement. The man was pretty intimidating, after all. "You just stood there, letting that all happen, like it's _normal_?"

"Dad," Kurt quickly interrupted. "It's alright. It's not like anyone at school ever does anything. Besides, he's – he's even shorter than I am, what could he do?"

"I'm sorry," Blaine said, for what had to be at least the third time today. "I just – all the bullying, it all came back. I thought I'd gotten over it, but… apparently, I haven't."

Kurt's gaze – he had such marvellous eyes, Blaine realised – was filled with wonder, but the man didn't look very convinced. "Bullying?" the man asked. "What bullying?"

Blaine took a deep breath. He wasn't used to talking about this, especially to total strangers. "The name-calling and such. It started in middle school, and it just continued to be like that in high school." He let out a brief snort. "Not that I lasted there for longer than a month anyway… It wasn't ever physical, but the mind games they play… they're just as bad."

"Why were you bullied?" the man asked him, and Blaine had to repress another snort. He thought he'd made it clear enough, but he knew he didn't completely fit the gay stereotype, so it wasn't overly clear.

With a quick glance at Kurt, he answered, "I – I'm gay."

Kurt seemed surprised, but his father just blinked, obviously not quite knowing how to react to that. "Right," he said in the end. "I'm – sorry, kid. Shouldn't have judged so quickly."

"That's alright," Blaine replied, shrugging – he knew that he himself had done the same thing. Besides, this had only shown him that there were really fathers who reacted well to the news that their son – or anyone else – was gay. Sure, his own father hadn't thrown him out or anything, but Blaine just knew that he wasn't exactly comfortable or happy with him.

While he'd been thinking, the man must've gone back inside, as he was nowhere to be seen. Kurt was still standing where he'd been standing before, but now he started to move again, offering Blaine a small smile.

"You don't… seem gay," he remarked tentatively. There were no traces of superiority in his voice anymore, only slight curiosity, and Blaine smirked.

"Well, and I, for one, never met a gay guy before who was so good at fixing cars."

Grinning a bit, Kurt turned his head towards the car. "Yes, well, it's not as if I've accomplished that much just yet. I really need to take a look at this from underneath."

As Kurt walked indoors to fetch some more tools to work with, Blaine stared at his car. He really hoped he could get out of this town before nightfall, but on the other hand – he kind of enjoyed talking to the other boy. Looking back, he wondered why he hadn't realised before that Kurt was gay. He didn't look or sound like average boys – not that that was a bad thing, far from it, actually – and his best friend – who was a girl – called _him_ for fashion advice and –

"You okay?" It appeared that Kurt had returned; he was now watching Blaine with a vague hint of concern. "I repeat, if you're bored – there's a bunch of magazines inside."

"No, I'm fine," Blaine hastily replied. Before he knew it, Kurt had disappeared underneath his car. He heard a whole variety of noises for some time, and all the while, he stayed where he was. "Everything alright down there?" he asked at some point, almost crouching down next to the car.

"Perfect," Kurt responded, his voice sounding, once again, a bit muffled. "As a matter of fact, I think I'm quite done here."

And indeed, five seconds later, he emerged from under the car. "So are you finished?" Blaine asked, looking from Kurt to the car and back. "Is my car fixed?"

"A little patience would be nice," Kurt commented, but luckily, he didn't sound too annoyed. "No, I'm not completely done. It shouldn't take too long, though."

Blaine nodded as Kurt turned back to the hood of the car. "Do those bullies bother you often?" he asked, slightly curious, but also a little afraid of what the answer would be.

Kurt looked about to give him a snappy retort, but seemed to rethink that option. Instead, his posture slumped a bit. "Usually, yes. Hardly ever during the weekends, though. That must be new."

"They go to your school?" Blaine asked, hoping that he wasn't crossing some line here.

"Hmhm," Kurt replied, not looking up from whatever he was working on, "they do. So that's where they usually target me. But it's no big deal."

"No big deal?" Blaine repeated. "Kurt – "

"It's _fine_," the other boy told him forcefully. "Why do you even care?"

Blaine shrugged. "As I said, it reminded me of my old school. There were some bullies there."

"But?" Kurt asked, clearly realising that that was only half the story.

"As soon as my parents realised what was going on, they pulled me out and transferred me to Dalton," Blaine said simply. He still wasn't sure whether they'd done that out of concern for him, or for their family name. "We have a zero tolerance policy there. But – I get that Dalton's not for everyone. Tuition is kind of steep."

Kurt merely nodded as he continued working on the car, but Blaine thought he could almost see his brain working overtime. After a while, Kurt announced, "I think I'm done. Just let me get my dad – he's the professional, after all."

It didn't take too long for his father to check everything another time, and then he told Blaine to try to start the car – which, he was very glad to find out, was possible again. After paying for the repair – luckily, nobody asked any questions as to why Blaine even had so much money with him – he thanked the man and made to walk out of the shop.

Kurt was just putting away the tools he'd used and he smiled vaguely as Blaine approached him. "Thanks, Kurt," he said, "for helping me out here. I don't know what I would've done if it hadn't been for you." On a second thought – that sounded very cheesy. Blaine cringed inwardly.

"That's what I'm here for, isn't it?" Kurt just replied. "And well, you'd probably have had to wait a little while longer to get your car back."

"Yeah, alright," Blaine gave in. "But I'm sorry you couldn't go shopping with your friend because of me."

Kurt grinned. "Oh, there'll be a lot of opportunities for that, trust me. No harm done."

"Okay, if you're sure…" Blaine trailed off. "Anyway, thanks." Hesitating for a moment, he soon figured that he might as well ask. "Hey, maybe we could go for lunch some time, as a thank you for fixing my car?"

"You already paid for that," Kurt reminded him, gesturing towards the small office in the back.

"Yes, I did," Blaine admitted reluctantly. Why was this so hard? "But could we still go for lunch? It was nice talking to you, actually. I'd like to do that again."

Judging from the surprised look on Kurt's face, not many people told him this. "Uh – sure, I guess. We could – do that some time."

Positively beaming, Blaine recited his phone number, and then he swiftly entered Kurt's number in his own phone. "This way, you can even give me a Rocky Horror update," he told the other boy, grinning. "You know, when your performance will take place."

"I suppose so," Kurt replied. "But I don't think we should really talk about Glee club stuff. Not with Sectionals coming up, at least."

"You're probably right." Blaine grinned again. "Anyway, I'd better get going. I'll see you soon, then?"

With a small smile, Kurt nodded. "It wouldn't surprise me. Just make sure nothing's wrong with your car when you do."

"I'll do my best," Blaine promised as he started the car. He really hoped that the next time they'd meet, it would be under better circumstances. With a final wave, he was back onto the road, continuing on his way to his parents. He could hardly wait for that next time.

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**A/N**: So, what do you think? Was it good, bad, somewhere in between? If you have any comments/questions whatsoever, don't hesitate to leave a review :)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: I know, I said this would be just a one-shot, but apparently, it's not - I just couldn't change it anymore in the first chapter... I wrote another chapter, and hopefully, it doesn't disappoint (too much), and the characters aren't too OOC :) Oh - I started writing this chapter about 1,5 month ago, so there are a few things in here that might not comply with the latest episodes. Although, this is AU anyway, so that probably doesn't matter too much :P At first, I also wanted to write this so that some of the events in NBK (etc.) could logically follow, but I don't suppose that's the case anymore. Oh well.

(Before I forget, some shameless self-promotion? I just posted the first chapter of a one-shot collection consisting of various AU first meetings between Kurt and Blaine. If you're interested, it's called _Always a pleasure_)

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy the chapter! :)

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"Cancelled? What? Why?" Slightly embarrassed by the word vomit coming from his mouth, Blaine quickly shut it, blinking at Kurt curiously.

The other boy smiled apologetically. "We figured it would be best. Do you know Sue Sylvester, from _Sue's_ _Corner_?"

Blaine thought for a moment. "The blond woman in the tracksuit who has an opinion about everything and seems to hate everyone who doesn't agree with her?"

Kurt nodded. "That's her. Apparently, she prepared something about arts in high school for the opening night of Rocky Horror. We decided that we'd better see it as a warning and not risk the Glee club getting cancelled."

"But why?" Blaine was still puzzled. "There's nothing she could do about it, could she?"

"Sue Sylvester is the cheerleading coach at our school," Kurt informed him. "She's at constant war with our Glee director, something about the budget. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but she's always searching for reasons to bring the club down." He seemed to think for a moment. "According to our director, if she had aired that particular episode on the opening night, there would've been a lot of uproar about our show. It would bring negative attention to the school and our club, and the principal might deem it appropriate to get rid of our Glee club."

"Is it really that bad?" Blaine asked, frowning slightly.

"You have no idea how often New Directions has almost ceased to exist in just over a year," Kurt replied wryly. "Anyway, let's talk about something else, okay? I don't think we should really be talking about our Glee clubs, especially with Sectionals coming up."

Blaine nodded and took a swig from his latte. "That's fine with me," he replied. Honestly, they could talk about anything, as far as he was concerned – Kurt being here at all was enjoyable enough in itself.

"Did your car give you anymore trouble?" Blaine looked up just in time to catch a fleeting smirk on Kurt's face and he managed to resist the urge to stick out his tongue.

"No, it didn't," he said defiantly. His parents had been a different story entirely. After he had told them why he was so late, they had spent the rest of the weekend telling him off. He himself didn't think it was such an unfortunate timing for his car to break down. But maybe that was just him. And _maybe_ he wasn't the most unbiased person to ask the opinion of. "So thanks," he added in an afterthought, when Kurt didn't react.

The other boy smirked again. "I really should've counted the amount of times you've thanked me so far," he told Blaine.

"You would've lost count by now," Blaine countered, knowing that he wasn't exactly helping his own case by saying this.

"Probably," Kurt agreed, grinning wickedly.

Blaine was _very_ glad that Kurt had, eventually, warmed up to him. He had no idea how he could've convinced him to meet him for coffee if Kurt had remained as stoic and… well, cold as he had at first appeared.

"I still can't believe you actually work in a car shop," he said, even though they'd had that discussion already the week before. It seemed impossible to think it was only a week ago that Blaine's car had started breaking down close to Lima – they'd kept in touch almost constantly this entire week, so it was like they had known each other for much longer.

"It's one of the few things my dad and I can bond over," Kurt admitted, staring down at the table. "You know, I'm actually glad that Finn has two left hands as well as two left feet. Well, when it comes to cars, that is, and dancing. He's an okay football player."

"Finn?" Blaine prompted. In all the texts they'd exchanged, Finn wasn't a name that had come up.

"Oh, I hadn't told you about that yet," Kurt said, sounding surprised. "Sorry, I thought – well, Finn's my dad's girlfriend's son. My almost stepbrother, if you will. He's one of the co-captains of New Directions."

"You're talking about your Glee club again," Blaine warned him, smiling a little. "So… why is it a good thing that this Finn doesn't know anything about cars?"

Kurt looked a little sullen now, and Blaine wondered if he was being too nosy again. "He and my dad have so much in common already," Kurt responded in the end. "It's like Finn's the son my dad always dreamt of having but never had."

Shifting uncomfortably, Blaine stared at the table for a moment before looking back at Kurt. He couldn't really come up with anything to say to that, but it was obvious that this was a rather upsetting topic for Kurt.

"That… sucks," he commented in the end. Less than a second later, he felt like smacking himself. "But uh – what about your mother, then?" he continued, eager for a topic change.

"She died nine years ago," Kurt replied, looking even more sullen than before, and Blaine was just about ready to strangle himself. Way to get a guy to like him.

"I'm sorry," he therefore said. "I – didn't realise. Gosh, I'm really asking you all the wrong questions…"

"That's fine," Kurt tried to wave it off as nothing. "It's not like you're the first to ask." In an afterthought, he added, "Or maybe you are. People generally aren't all that interested in me. At least not in my personal life." Seeing Blaine's confused face, he explained, "They're mostly interested in throwing me in dumpsters, or throwing slushies at me, stuff like that."

"How can you say that like those are normal things to do?" Blaine asked, gaping slightly. "That sounds awful. They shouldn't be doing that."

"It is normal," Kurt replied with a shrug. "For me, at least. And for the other kids in Glee club – well, partly. The slushies, and the name-calling. We're sort of at the bottom of – and I'm doing it again. Sorry."

"No, it's fine with me, don't apologise." Blaine was grinning again. "You must really love it."

"It's the best part of school," Kurt muttered. "No, scratch that. It's the only good part about it." With a deep sigh, he continued, "Can we just talk about something else? I must sound like some awfully depressed teenager right now, and I can assure you, I'm not."

So then, Blaine found himself talking about the Warblers, because if Kurt loved his Glee club so much, Blaine might as well talk about his. The other boy's eyes were as wide as saucers when Blaine mentioned that the Warblers were actually pretty popular in school.

"You're kidding," Kurt just said flatly. "There are actually schools where being in Glee club isn't frowned upon? You're popular? We are like the biggest losers in school."

"Really? How's that even possible?" Now it was Blaine's turn to be shocked.

"Singing and dancing is deemed… gay, by the jocks, and they're the popular kids in school. Even the other guys – they're all on the football team, ironically enough, have to deal with a lot of shit for being in Glee club. And the girls – half of them are on the cheerleading squad, so they're relatively safe, but the others are deemed losers as well."

"But you're still there. You haven't given up yet, your club still exists. That's good for something too, isn't it?" Thankfully, this earned Blaine a true smile.

"Yeah, that's true," Kurt admitted. "We're like one big family. It's nice."

"See?" Blaine said. "I don't really think of my fellow Warblers as family – the club's nice and all, but we've never had to fight for its existence. We sort of take it for granted, so we take each other for granted."

"So what _is_ your family like?" Kurt asked curiously. "Your real family, I mean. You know about mine now – you know my dad, you know what he does… you know about my stepbrother and stepmum…"

"Fair enough," Blaine laughed. "I… don't have any brothers or sisters. My father works for the government – as does my mother, as a matter of fact. I don't exactly know what it is they do, but apparently, they're important. Last weekend was one of the few these past months that they were both home. They're… alright, with me being gay, but I could tell last week that they're not quite as supportive as your dad."

"My dad's great," Kurt said with a smile. "So your parents are important people, then? You don't seem like a typical spoilt rich brat," he mused, then hastily shut his mouth. "Sorry, that came out wrong – "

"No, that's fine," Blaine told him hastily. "People tend to assume that pretty often. But there are a lot of those kids at Dalton, so…"

"How charming," Kurt said with a grin. "So it's a typical boarding school for kids with rich parents, hm?"

"Sort of," Blaine admitted. "Okay, not everyone necessarily boards there, but the biggest part of the student population comes from a rich and important family. The fees are pretty high, too. But of course, the education is fantastic, and there's a zero-tolerance policy against bullying." He knew he'd told Kurt most of this the weekend before as well, but Kurt had been working on his car at the time, and probably hadn't been paying much attention.

"There is?" Kurt looked positively delighted by this. "That sounds great, Blaine. But – why did your parents send you to a public school in the first place?" Kurt sounded curious now. "If they could've afforded to send you to Dalton from the beginning, why put you through the misery of having to attend a… normal school?"

"The bullying was never that bad in middle school," Blaine replied, staring at his plate with great interest. "I mean, sure, there was quite a lot of name-calling, but it got much worse pretty early on in high school. I couldn't walk down a hallway without getting some homophobic slur thrown at me. I guess I wasn't strong enough to deal with that, so I ran." He was fully aware of the degree of contempt and self-hatred must be audible in his voice.

"Hey," Kurt said. "Blaine – you're not weak, alright? You're not a coward, or anything. Those bullies, they're the cowards. They feel so bad about themselves that they have to bully someone else to feel remotely good about themselves. It's sad, but we're the ones who'll eventually get stronger and make it to the top, not them. They'll be the ones working for us later. No – they'll work for the ones who work for the people who work for us."

"Thanks, Kurt," Blaine responded, smiling at the boy in front of him. "You're right. We're much better than them."

"Of course I'm right," Kurt huffed, but Blaine could easily detect the amused glint in his eyes.

"Is that how you get through the day?" he suddenly asked. "Sorry – was that too much?"

"No, it's fine," Kurt said, sounding slightly nervous. "But yeah, it is." He let out a hollow sounding laugh. "You need something like that to survive all the abuse you suffer as one of the losers in public school." With a shrug, he added, "I'm fairly sure the entire club has a similar mantra."

Blaine was about to repeat the fact that they should not even have to _have_ such a mantra, but he was sure that Kurt was aware of this himself. He quickly changed the topic – there were, after all, so many other things they could talk about that didn't have anything to do with their own lives. And though Kurt seemed momentarily disappointed that Blaine wasn't really into fashion, and though Blaine felt the same way when Kurt announced that he wasn't what you'd call a big football fan (or one at all, even), there was still much to discuss. Like the newest Broadway shows and the latest _Vogue_, and all kinds of things Blaine normally didn't talk about, because none of his friends at Dalton knew anything about those subjects, or were interested in them.

It was refreshing, to say the least.

Even though they were only supposed to have lunch together, they stayed where they were for much longer than that. Not that Blaine minded – or Kurt, he figured. The other boy didn't seem to have a problem with speaking his mind, so if he was bored, he probably wouldn't hesitate to say so.

"We might as well order some dinner soon," Blaine commented jokingly as he checked his watch. Kurt eyed him disbelievingly.

"You're kidding," he said. "It's really _that_ late already?"

"Did you have to be somewhere?" Blaine asked worriedly. That wasn't good.

Thankfully, Kurt shook his head. "No, I don't, but I guess my dad will be wondering what's taking me so long. Won't your parents?"

"They're not home at the moment," Blaine replied. "I'm just staying at Dalton for the weekend. It's no big deal, I'm used to it." Nevertheless, Kurt looked concerned for a moment, before he snapped out of his daze.

"Maybe we should go, though. There's always next weekend, right?"

Blaine could just feel his face lighting up. "You mean you want to do this again?" He was sure his stomach was doing somersaults.

Kurt looked vaguely amused. "Sure, why not? I mean, if you don't have anything coming up…"

"No, I don't," Blaine hastily replied. "Nothing at all. Next weekend sounds fantastic. And we can always text, right?"

"Right, how could I forget?" Kurt said, rolling his eyes playfully.

Before Kurt could even pull out his wallet, Blaine had paid the bill already, insisting that he pay, as he had been the one to invite Kurt for lunch. Kurt retaliated by saying that in that case, he'd pay next weekend – something Blaine felt almost obligated to prevent, but he'd worry about that in a few days. Not while he was driving back to Dalton – he was already distracted enough by the fact that he'd just had lunch with Kurt, and they were doing it again next week.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Almost two weeks later, after rehearsal, Blaine was just _itching_ to text Kurt. Not that he normally wasn't, but now, the urge was even bigger. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed a quick message.

_Did you hear the news about Sectionals yet? ;)_

He didn't need to wait for too long before Kurt replied, which wasn't unusual.

_You bet. Prepare to lose, Anderson ;)_

Blaine laughed out loud at that. Lose? He didn't think so. Although he didn't like the thought that them winning would mean New Directions (and, most importantly, Kurt) losing, he was too psyched by the prospect that maybe, just maybe, they could win Sectionals this year. No Vocal Adrenaline in sight – it was like a dream come true for the Warblers.

_Does this mean we have to stop hanging out?_

He certainly hoped not, but after hearing Kurt's horror story about Jesse St James, he wouldn't be too surprised. Luckily, Kurt didn't see a problem here.

_I don't see why. Same place, same time, this weekend?_

Grinning, Blaine typed a reply. Sure, this news meant that he'd have to refrain from asking Kurt out properly until after the competition, but he could wait.

_I'll meet you there :)_

* * *

**A/N**: So... what did you think? Let me know, please review! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: So... I'm sorry for taking so long to update? Please don't kill me? Because as you can all see, I _did_ continue this story and there will be more... and I hope to be able to update sooner this time (so no four months in between). I hope you're all still reading this, so by all means, let me know what you think! Personally, I'm not sure if I like this chapter (it's short, and a bit repetitive, but maybe that's just me, and a killer of a filler, in my opinion), so I'll try to make the next one(s) more eventful (or at least more fun and less repetitive). I also know that the story title doesn't really apply to the entire story anymore, but a) I don't really feel like changing it, and b) I have no idea what to change it to, if I were to change it. Which I'm not. I hope that's not too much of a problem for anyone :)

Anyway, a couple of stuff I'd like to say before the chapter starts: this (chapter) is set during NBK... but the time line is completely wrecked up - there are too many weeks - so please ignore that (so I can do that too :P). The boys, having met a couple of weeks earlier, know each other better than they would on the show at this point, so they speak and act more freely. I won't be covering everything, but just keep in mind that they have talked about a lot by now. And, finally, I _did_ start writing this chapter some time ago already, so it's not canon compliant everywhere (most importantly, the Sadie Hawkins dance and stuff around that didn't happen). It's AU anyway, so a little more or less AU-ness shouldn't hurt, right? ;)

Hopefully you'll enjoy the chapter, and please review at the bottom! :)

* * *

As was usual these days, Blaine couldn't wait for the weekend to begin. He was certain that both his happiness and his impatience grew as the week went on, and after almost a month of this, he knew that it was very likely that his friends might have taken notice.

Or not.

"Are you going to your parents' again this weekend?" David asked him as he sat down for breakfast that Friday morning.

Jeff, upon noticing that David was talking to Blaine, added, "You're always gone lately. Are your parents trying to set you up with some daughter of a colleague again?"

All the Warblers at the table shot Blaine a sympathetic glance at this. Blaine himself, however, was sufficiently confused. He hadn't gone home in almost a month, so why did his friends assume that he had?

"No," he replied, "no, they're not. Actually, I – "

"If they do, just give her my number," Nick told him from a few seats down.

David rolled his eyes. "Did you and Amanda break up _again_?" he asked exasperatedly, and with that, the issue of Blaine disappearing during the weekends was dropped.

When Blaine thought about it, he supposed that his friends might have a point – they probably didn't see him a lot anymore during weekends. His Saturdays were spent with Kurt, and he'd arrive back at Dalton after dinner, so he didn't bother looking for his friends much. Sundays were mostly spent in the school library, as he tried to do all his homework in one day. That method had had varying results so far.

It wasn't long before Kurt's first text of the day arrived. It had become a routine for them, trying to distract the other from whatever lesson they had, whether it was a boring one or an interesting one – or perhaps even a test. Blaine winced at the memory of last Tuesday, when Kurt had been particularly unresponsive and later turned out to have been taking an important test.

During the day, the two boys argued back and forth about various trivialities such as classes, the weather, the Buckeyes' latest match (Kurt wasn't very fond of that one) and the latest _Vogue_ cover. That evening, Blaine had a few hours to spare, as it was Kurt's family's dinner night, so he figured he'd best get a head-start on his homework already. He _did_ have a test next week, so it was all he could do not to have to cut his time with Kurt short tomorrow. They hardly saw each other as it was.

So the next day, Blaine was ready to spend the whole afternoon with Kurt again. They had known each other for less than a month, but Blaine already felt like the other boy knew him better than anyone else, and he liked to think that he knew Kurt pretty well too by now. Of course, there was still a lot to learn, but with Kurt, Blaine could talk about things that _mattered_ to him. He always thought that he had plenty of friends at Dalton, but compared to what he had with Kurt, those friendships were kind of shallow. They didn't really know one another, and Blaine wasn't sure if that was Dalton, or maybe him. Either way, everything was different with Kurt – in more than one way.

And yes, maybe he was being stupid, falling this hard for virtually the first openly gay guy his age he met, but it wasn't as if he could help himself – not that he wanted to. But he was certain that even if Kurt had been the tenth, hundredth, or thousandth gay guy he met – there was something special about him, something that made Blaine notice him, and something that just drew him in further and further every day.

Of course, he didn't know how Kurt felt about him, but he did know that they understood each other in a way nobody else did. Blaine might have had the Warblers, but all they cared for was his voice and whether or not he'd be up to singing the newest song they picked out. Kurt's friends may not have been fully comparable to the Warblers – sure, they were also a Glee club, but even with all their drama, they seemed to be a closer knit group than the Warblers could ever dream of being – but none of them could ever completely comprehend what Kurt went through.

He could, though. Or at least he liked to think he had a better idea of this than they did.

It was an amazing friendship they had formed in such a short time, but to be honest, Blaine didn't know what would happen if they'd ever start dating. Would they be unable to talk to one another like this from that point onwards? Was he ready to potentially lose Kurt (and the other way around) if it didn't work out, or maybe even if Kurt simply didn't reciprocate?

Sighing, Blaine stayed in his car in the parking lot for a little longer. He wasn't late yet.

Was he ready to ruin their friendship like that? Sure, it might work out, but what were the odds? High school romances normally didn't last.

He shook it off. It wasn't as if he had to physically restrain himself from jumping Kurt every second they were together. Maybe he would fall out of like (love?) with Kurt before he'd completely fallen _in_ like (or love) with his friend. Maybe he wouldn't. Anyway, he'd figure that part out when it became a pressing matter. Or when Kurt would do something.

At last, he got out of his car, locked it, and walked into the coffee shop that had quickly become their regular meeting place. Kurt was already present, and had been there for a while, by the looks of it. Blaine smiled as his friend flipped a page of his book, and then he swiftly checked if he wasn't late after all. Fortunately, he wasn't.

Impatiently, Blaine stood in line, checking if Kurt was still there every few seconds. All of a sudden, the other boy seemed to realise that he was being stared at, and looked up from his book. As he noticed Blaine standing there, he grinned widely. Blaine grinned back instantly, and was only brought out of his Kurt-induced haze when the man standing behind him pushed him forward lightly. Startled, Blaine turned around, only to have the barista tell him that it was his turn to order.

As he approached Kurt, his friend was smirking at him. "That'll teach you," he told Blaine, who just frowned.

"What do you – oh." He scowled. "That wasn't funny, you know. I was scared to death when that man pushed me."

Kurt nodded seriously. "Yeah, I can imagine. Just – don't ever zone out in the middle of a coffee shop anymore, alright? What were you thinking about anyway?"

Blaine coughed. There was no way he could tell Kurt the truth. White lies were allowed every now and then, right? Besides, perhaps he would tell Kurt what had been on his mind some other time – some time when they were together, as boyfriends, preferably.

"I was debating changing my order," he replied. "But, you know me."

Glancing at the coffee – Blaine's usual – Kurt smirked. "Oh, yes, I do."

Deciding that this was an excellent time to change the subject, Blaine asked, "So how've you been? Is everything alright, at home and at school?"

Kurt raised an eyebrow at him. "Blaine," he started, "we're constantly texting each other, calling or Skyping basically every night, and you ask how I've been?"

Blaine shrugged. "There are always things you don't discuss unless you're face to face. So, tell me. Your dad's still okay?" Kurt had told Blaine about Burt's stroke earlier that year, after Blaine had asked why Kurt was always acting so concerned about his father's health. It had certainly explained a whole lot to him.

"Yes, he is," Kurt replied, shifting in his seat. "He's still working more than he should, but he says that he'll be in even more stress if he doesn't get all his work done each day. I guess I'll just have to trust him there." Smiling a bit, he continued, "Oh – I have a feeling that he might propose to Carole soon, you know. With his heart… I don't think he'll wait for much longer."

Blaine grinned. "That would be great, Kurt!"

Kurt nodded. "It would," he agreed. "Though I hope Finn and I will get separate rooms this time around. I doubt anyone wants a repeat of the last time they tried to have us sleep in the same room." Seeing Blaine's confused face, he quickly launched into that particular story. At the end, Blaine was still a bit confused.

"But – didn't you say that your friends in Glee club accepted you?" he asked carefully. From what he just heard, that wasn't the case at all.

"They do, most of the time," Kurt answered. "Finn… well, I guess he tries. I suppose I may have made him a little uncomfortable last year when I had a crush on him." He frowned. "I still don't know how _that_ happened, so let's not dwell on that for too long."

"That doesn't give him the right to call you that," Blaine said immediately. "No one should call you that, Kurt."

Kurt gave him a small smile. "I know," he replied. After a few seconds, he added, "The same goes for you, though. You don't have… people in your life calling you that, right?"

Blaine thought of his father. Occasionally, he would throw insults at Blaine, who, by now, paid him no mind when he did so. "No, not really," he said. "I spend most of my time at Dalton anyway, and if someone were to call me, or anyone else for that matter, such a thing, they risk being expelled." Kurt's face fell, though he tried to cover it up. "Is the bullying still as bad?" Blaine asked worriedly.

Kurt shrugged in response, taking a while before replying, "I'm fine, Blaine. It's alright. Sure, they're still throwing slushies and hurling slurs at me… it's nothing I'm not used to by now." Glancing up, he caught Blaine's eye, and Blaine was shocked to see how insecure Kurt looked at that moment. Taking a deep breath, Kurt continued. "There's this one football player though… who really seems intent on making my life hell. I feel like… he's constantly following me around, watching me, threatening to beat me up, pushing me into lockers multiple times a day. I try to stay strong about it all, but… it just gets to me, you know? I can feel so intimidated, so small and just… useless." He sighed. "Of course, my friends try to help me, but they hardly ever witness it anymore. And if they do see me getting harassed… there's not much they can do against that _Neanderthal_." He spit out that word as if it was the filthiest thing he'd ever tasted. "It just frightens me, I guess. It's like he has some weird power over me… and I hate it." Seeing the incredulous look on Blaine's face, he tried to smile. "I'll get over it, though," he muttered. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't burden you with this."

Blaine sat in silence for a minute after Kurt finished. He hadn't realised that the bullying had gotten that bad this quickly. He tried to remember what Kurt had told him during their first coffee meeting, but for once, he didn't recall the exact words, which frustrated him. He just wished he could put his arms around the other boy and hug him tight, never letting go, making sure nothing would ever harm him ever again. Was that a normal thought for just-a-friend to have? Blaine wasn't sure, and either way, there was no way he could make that happen. Oh, if only he could…

"Blaine?" Kurt asked tentatively, glancing at him sadly over the rim of his cup. "Are you okay?"

Blaine let out a shaky laugh. "You just – you just told me what you go through _daily_ and you're asking _me_ if I'm okay?" he asked disbelievingly. "Kurt – "

"I'm used to it," Kurt muttered, no longer looking at Blaine. He even _sounded_ sadder than usual, and it nearly broke Blaine's heart.

"Nobody should be used to that sort of treatment," he said softly, carefully reaching out for Kurt's right hand, which was lying on the table, and squeezing it. Friends could do that, right?

Kurt seemed to shiver slightly, but that might have been Blaine's imagination. "I know," he replied, staring at his hand – and Blaine's – on the table. "But there's not much I can do about it, right?" With that, he looked up at Blaine somewhat uncertainly.

Blaine's mind worked quickly, or at least tried to. Kurt was well aware that he had run, so why was he expecting advice from Blaine? "You could…," he started, not really knowing where he was headed, "you could stand up to him. Call him out. Show him you're not afraid of him."

Kurt sighed. "I've stood up to him – and his friends – so often, Blaine. It only makes them angrier, it doesn't help at all. It's just getting worse. Besides – most of those guys, Karofsky included, are twice my size, if not even bigger. They would snap me in half if they had the chance." Blaine could see how that could potentially turn out to be a problem.

"Right," he said, "stupid idea. Forget I mentioned it."

Kurt nodded absent-mindedly, frowning slightly. "Yeah," he said vaguely. "I suppose I'll just… keep hoping that it'll all get better someday."

"It will," Blaine assured him. "If I have any say in it – it will." Too late did he realise that he'd said that out loud.

Nevertheless, Kurt smiled, not pointing out that honestly, Blaine didn't have much of a say of what went down in Kurt's life. "Now," he broke the silence, grinning at Blaine – though it did look a bit fake – "let's talk about something less depressing. Have you read anything good recently?"

* * *

**A/N**: Yeah... I hope you liked it, even though it was a bit short! Please let me know any comments/questions/thoughts you may have, please leave a review! :D


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**: I said it wouldn't take me as long this time :D Ahem. I'll warn you again, the timeline in this story is not what it's supposed to be. It's mostly the fact that I'm pretty much pretending that NBK covered about four weeks. But after that, it should get fairly normal. I hope. It might not, though. Maybe I'm the only one who's actually annoyed by this, I don't know. But! In the next chapter, we should get to _The Substitute_. At the very, very beginning, though. I'm also not too sure of how long I want this story to drag on - at least until Sectionals, but I don't know if I want to go on after that. On one hand, it might be interesting, but on the other, it might just be lame and... yeah. But it'll take me a while to even get to Sectionals, so no worries about that for now :)

Anyway, I hope you survived _that_, and hopefully, you'll enjoy the chapter!

* * *

A couple of days later, Blaine was still constantly thinking about Kurt. And Kurt's situation, of course. The bullying he was facing would be enough for many people to just give up, to transfer schools, to let them win. But not for Kurt – he was staying strong, and Blaine admired that about him. Along with many other traits of Kurt's.

It may be becoming a problem. Perhaps it was a good thing that he'd be meeting up with Kurt later, or else he might've gone crazy.

The test he hadn't been able to study for very well went fine in the end, fortunately. Still, Blaine knew that he might have to study more next time – he wouldn't get away with it so easily twice in a row. When he exited the Warblers' meeting room later that day, he noticed some of the other students whispering amongst themselves – something was clearly going on.

"What's wrong?" he asked someone random, while the other Warblers started filing out of the room as well.

The student jerked his head towards the general direction of the front doors. "There's some guy in the entrance hall. He _obviously_ doesn't go here, and apparently, he told some people he's just waiting for a friend. I wonder what he's doing here…"

"Waiting for a friend?" Jeff suggested, and the other boy rolled his eyes. Blaine, however, was long gone – he took off towards the entrance hall, eager to see if this person was who he thought (suspected, hoped) it was.

And it was.

"Kurt!" he exclaimed, grinning widely. "You're early!"

Kurt took a few steps towards him. "Yes, I know. Glee stuff – well, there was no rehearsal today so we could work on the weekly assignments. The other guys didn't appreciate my help and instead suggested I go spy on you 'Garglers'. So I left." He rolled his eyes to add some dramatic effect, and Blaine couldn't help but smile.

"Garglers?" he asked. "Do I want to know?"

"They're just a bunch of… uneducated fools," Kurt muttered.

"Well, if you came here to spy, you're just minutes to late," Blaine informed him. "The meeting just ended."

Kurt stared at him for a couple of seconds for shaking his head. "You know fully well that I'm not here to spy, Blaine. Plus, I've been here for at least fifteen minutes, so I had plenty of time to do so if I wanted to. I just don't think spying on you guys is going to work when you obviously already know me."

"That could be a problem indeed," Blaine said with a smile. "So you regularly spy on the competition?"

"As a Glee club, we have quite the history already, as a matter of fact," Kurt replied. "Didn't I ever tell you about all those times we spied on Vocal Adrenaline last year?"

Blaine laughed. "You probably did. Then again, so did we."

"Oh?" Kurt eyed him with great interest. "Do tell. Uh – do you want to change out of your uniform before we go?"

Blaine glanced down. "Does it bother you if I don't?"

Kurt shrugged. "As long as you don't wear it all the time when we hang out."

"Of course not," Blaine assured him, but made a mental note to bring some casual clothes to Dalton the next time he went home. As they walked towards the parking lot, he said, "I managed to talk the other Warblers out of stalking you guys on YouTube, by the way, so don't worry about that."

Contrary to what he expected (but with Kurt, that wasn't unusual), Kurt didn't start to thank him in every possible way, but burst out laughing. Needless to say, Blaine _had_ to laugh along. It was impossible not to do so.

"What's so funny?" he asked in the end, feeling a little foolish, just laughing while not even understanding the joke.

"I think _you_ have a lot more to worry about than we do," Kurt replied. "There are literally no videos from us on YouTube, except for out Sectionals and Regionals performances from last year. Rachel makes sure of that. And speaking of Rachel – she's probably searched the entire internet for anything about the Warblers. Including any MySpace and Facebook accounts."

Blaine blinked. "But – if she has, don't you think she would've noticed that you and I are Facebook friends?"

Kurt paled. "Oh, crap. I didn't even think about that. Can't you block her, or set your profile to private?"

"I don't think that would help," Blaine said apologetically. "I think mutual friends are always visible."

"I can take her on," Kurt said confidently. "And the others too." Good. Because Blaine didn't really want to unfriend Kurt because of this minor issue.

As they got in the car, he asked, "Can't you just turn this around? She _dated_ Jesse St James last year, right? So why shouldn't you be allowed to… be friends with the competition?"

Starting the car, Kurt shook his head. "I'm afraid not. See, I was the one who told her everyone in the club would quit if she didn't break up with him." Yes, Blaine could sense a problem there.

"So where are we going?" Blaine asked. "Lima Bean?"

Kurt nodded. "And I was thinking maybe we could watch a movie at mine later? My dad's working late anyway, so dinner won't be a very elaborate matter. Or do you need to be back for dinner?"

"Would your dad be alright with it if you had to drive me all the way back to Dalton again tonight?" Blaine asked, frowning. From what he'd seen and heard of Kurt's father, that idea didn't sound too plausible.

"You're right," Kurt admitted. "We could… watch a movie now, eat dinner early and then I bring you back? We can get coffee then?"

That sounded like it could work. Blaine grinned widely. "Sure, sounds great!"

On their way to Lima, the boys chatted about everything that came to mind. Not much had happened these past few days (Blaine made sure to question Kurt thoroughly about the bullying, though), but there were always subjects they hadn't spoken about yet (or simply wanted to revisit. There were enough of those).

Blaine warned Kurt that he had what could be called a right Disney fetish, and Kurt just smiled. He didn't laugh at Blaine, which was new. "Good thing I've still got all those films," Kurt mused. "But we're not going to watch _Bambi_."

"Why not?" Blaine asked curiously. Truth was, he hadn't even thought of watching _Bambi_ before Kurt had almost forbidden him from suggesting it. "Is there a funny story to go with that?"

Kurt mock-glared at him. "Don't bother asking. I mean, no, there's not."

Blaine looked out of the window, an amused smile playing on his face. He was rather sure that Kurt wasn't completely telling the truth there, but he'd get it out someday.

When they arrived at Kurt's house, Kurt instructed Blaine to go downstairs already and find himself a movie he wanted to see, while he went to get them something to eat and drink. At first, Blaine was confused as to why Kurt wanted him to go downstairs, but when he saw what they'd done to the basement, he immediately understood. He didn't know anyone who had their bedroom in the basement, but he could see why Kurt did – it was probably bigger than most other rooms in the house, and it provided more privacy than upstairs bedrooms would. As for the room itself, it was very Kurt.

Before he knew it, Kurt was standing behind him, seeming surprised that Blaine hadn't picked out a movie yet.

"I – really like your room," Blaine blurted out, smiling widely. "It's absolutely amazing."

Kurt smiled back. "Thanks. I _did_ put a lot of effort into designing it this way, so it'd better be amazing." Gesturing towards the old TV in the room, he asked, "So what do you want to see?"

Smirking, Blaine crouched down next to it. "I think I want to see… _Bambi_."

He didn't need to turn around to know that Kurt's eyes had turned into slits. "No, you don't," Kurt said. "Blaine…"

Said boy just continued looking through the films Kurt had put next to the TV, knowing that if he turned around and looked at his friend, he might just give in and admit that _Bambi_ had indeed not been his first choice.

In the end, Kurt groaned audibly. "Fine," he exclaimed. "We'll watch _Bambi_. But you owe me big time after this."

"I'll buy you coffee later," Blaine (almost automatically) responded to that, having found _Bambi_ among the old tapes. "And a muffin to go with it."

"Don't bother with the muffin," Kurt told him. "It's full of empty calories, do you have any idea – "

"I'm sure one muffin couldn't hurt." Blaine glanced around at Kurt, and concluded that no, there was no way that one muffin would be so bad for his friend. "But if you insist, I won't buy you a muffin."

By now, Kurt had made himself comfortable on the bed. He told Blaine, "Pop in the tape and sit down, okay? We'll talk about this later."

After starting the movie, Blaine turned towards Kurt. "Should I just – " he started, gesturing towards the bed. He didn't want to make things awkward. Luckily, even though he didn't finish his question, Kurt understood exactly what he meant to say.

"Oh," he replied, his eyes widening considerably. "Right. Uh – yeah, I suppose you could. I mean, if you want to. If – "

"Great," Blaine said, sitting down next to Kurt (which was fairly difficult in itself – he didn't want to sit _too_ close, to not force himself onto him, and he didn't want to sit too far away either, for Kurt might think something was wrong). "Let's watch."

Throughout the movie, Blaine glanced at Kurt a couple of times. The other boy seemed to be trying very hard not to start crying, which, Blaine thought, was odd. It wasn't as if he was going to judge Kurt for crying over a movie, right? He himself kept sniffling all the time as well. About an hour into the movie, the door opened and Kurt's father walked down the stairs. _So much for him working late_, Blaine thought.

"Dad!" Kurt exclaimed, surprised. "What are you doing home so early? I didn't think you'd be back until later, so I haven't made dinner yet. Should I – "

His father looked from Kurt to Blaine and raised his eyebrows. Apparently, he hadn't expected to see Blaine again. "You're watching a movie?" he asked briskly, and when Kurt nodded hesitantly, he added, "Come upstairs when it's done, alright? Not you," he told Blaine.

The boys sat in silence for a minute before Blaine asked, "Are we in trouble?"

"I don't think so," Kurt replied, shaking his head. "I – don't worry about it, okay? Let's finish the movie and then I'll go hear what he wants."

Blaine nodded mutely. He hoped that he hadn't unknowingly offended Kurt's father somehow.

It wasn't long before the movie was over. Kurt stood up to go upstairs, but only after handing Blaine a _Vogue_ copy to read. Though Blaine normally loved reading the _Vogue_, he couldn't really concentrate. Was it a good or bad thing that Kurt stayed away for so long?

A couple of minutes later, Kurt returned, looking slightly flushed. Blaine instantly sat upright. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. "Should I leave?" He hoped not.

"No, you can stay," Kurt replied. "He was just…" He reddened even further, if possible. "He was just checking that we weren't doing anything… inappropriate."

Oh. Well, that was awkward.

"But we're just friends, right?" Blaine asked (but oh, how that pained him).

"That's what I told him," Kurt muttered. "He still found it suspicious, though. We have to leave the door open next time. I didn't think it would be such a problem, but apparently, since we're both gay, it is." He looked far from happy as he said this.

Blaine shrugged. He could live with that. "If it had been my parents, you probably wouldn't have been allowed in the house again, at least not without them there," he told Kurt. "This isn't that bad, right?"

Kurt looked slightly disbelieving for a moment. "I guess," he mumbled. "Anyway, I might as well start cooking dinner now. Want to keep me company in the kitchen?"

"Of course," Blaine answered, then worried if he was coming across as too eager. "I'll come," he added in a more even voice.

He tried to help Kurt cook dinner, but the other boy wouldn't let him, reminding him that he was a guest, and therefore should just stay seated and do nothing. That didn't seem very fair to Blaine, but Kurt refused to accept his help. Not wanting to upset Kurt too much, Blaine gave up after a while.

Dinner was a rather quiet affair. Kurt's father told them (or rather, just Kurt, probably) about some car he'd worked on that day (though only after much probing from Kurt). Kurt talked about the nature of that week's Glee assignment (a girls versus boys competition of sorts. Blaine thought it sounded pretty cool, Kurt assured him that it wasn't), and then Blaine told him about the Warblers' impromptu performance they had done that day (though he didn't mention what song, as it was on their Sectionals set list). After that, they remained mostly silent.

After dinner, Kurt told his dad their plans for the night, and before Blaine knew it, they were out of the house and on the road to the Lima Bean. They stayed there for over an hour, chatting about their childhoods, until Kurt suggested they head to Dalton (after all, he had another two hour drive home ahead of him).

Blaine couldn't help but think that this had been one heck of a great day.

o-o-o-o-o

The next day, some of his friends eyed him a little oddly throughout the day. For the most part, Blaine ignored the stares. They only made him antsy. And yes, perhaps he had been ignoring his friends at Dalton a little lately in favour of spending all his time with (or thinking about) Kurt. But weren't they the same when they found themselves a new girlfriend? He and Kurt weren't dating (yet, as far as Blaine was concerned), but it was comparable, wasn't it?

Blaine hoped so, at least.

Soon, it was time for another Warblers meeting (they were held every day so shortly before Sectionals). Blaine sat down in one of the chairs in the room, waiting for everyone else to come in. After calling the meeting to order, Wes droned on about steps and spins, and Blaine, like almost every other Warbler (even Thad and David, from what he could see) zoned out. He almost jumped when he heard Wes call his name and all Warblers were suddenly looking his way.

"Good," Wes said, "now that I've got your attention, Blaine – care to explain what that was yesterday?"

"What _what_ was yesterday?" Blaine was confused. He hadn't done anything out of the ordinary during yesterday's meeting, had he?

"What he means," David continued for Wes, "is that you were getting very… friendly with that guy in the entrance hall. You know, the one you left with later and who was telling you all about _Glee_."

"Oh," Blaine replied. So this wasn't about yesterday's meeting, then. He hadn't even noticed that he and Kurt were being watched the day before. "That was Kurt. He's a friend of mine."

Wes gave him a look that clearly said, 'Tell us something we hadn't figured out by ourselves yet'. "How long have you two known each other?" he asked suspiciously.

"I don't know," Blaine exclaimed, even though he actually did know. Maybe even a little too well. Down to the minute. "A month, I think?"

The council exchanged glances, obviously not expecting that. "Where did you meet him? And how?" David asked. Blaine was very aware that everybody in the room was still staring at him, waiting for an explanation.

"My car broke down a few weeks ago, and he was helping in his dad's garage," Blaine replied dutifully. "We got talking, and decided to go for coffee some time."

"I'm going to take a gamble here and say that this was not your first date?" Wes asked, looking as if he was already bracing himself for disaster to strike.

"No, you're right," Blaine replied, smiling a bit. "This wasn't our first date, simply because we're not dating." Oh, but how he wanted to. "But no, it wasn't the first time we hung out."

"But you want to date him," Jeff piped up, and Blaine instantly flushed. Was he really that obvious? And when did his friends stop being completely oblivious to what was going on in his life?

"Look, I don't see how this is any of your business," he muttered.

"You're our lead vocalist," David reminded him, "of course it's our business. Now do tell, why are you not dating?"

Blaine groaned softly. "Kurt – he's in New Directions," he confessed, and everyone started muttering amongst themselves. After Wes banged his gavel to shut them all up and beckoned towards Blaine to continue, he said, "They had some pretty heavy drama last year before Regionals, with Jesse St James, so members of opposing teams are… well, off limits shortly before the competition."

Wes nodded appreciatively. "That's a really good thought. So, Regionals, huh?" And with that, the subject of Kurt was dropped, and the subject of New Directions as a whole was taken up.

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine could've known that that was not the end of the interrogation. When he went to his room after rehearsal, he sensed a presence (or five) behind him. However, every time he turned around, his friends hid themselves. Not wanting to chase them around the halls of Dalton, Blaine just rolled his eyes and kept walking. He would know what they were up to soon enough.

And indeed, he had just arrived in his room when someone (well, at least two someones) started pounding on the door. For a moment, Blaine considered just ignoring them, but that was no use – his friends were insane enough to camp out in front of his door until he was forced to come out for something or other.

With great apprehension, he opened his door, only to be almost tackled by Nick and Jeff. "Blaine!" Nick exclaimed. "You _have_ to tell us more!"

For one moment, Blaine appeared to have forgotten what gossip queens walked around the Dalton halls.

"Is that why you're always gone during the weekend?" David asked, looking just as disturbed at Nick and Jeff's enthusiasm as Blaine felt. "To spend them in Lima?"

Remembering Burt Hummel's reaction to him simply being in Kurt's room, watching a movie, Blaine didn't think he would survive if he was to suggest such a thing anytime soon. "Only the Saturdays," he replied, fully aware that that wasn't the full truth.

Jeff and Nick exchanged glances, probably deciding that the conversation was quickly becoming boring. "Tell us more about Kurt!" Jeff almost commanded Blaine. "What's he like? Is he gay? Is he a good singer?"

"Seriously, you're worse than teenage girls," Wes muttered, crossing his arms.

Nick and Jeff ignored this comment and opted to watch Blaine eagerly instead. "Yes, he's gay," Blaine muttered, giving up. "I haven't really heard him sing, but I think he's a good singer. He's in a Glee club, right?"

(Yes, Kurt had told him that pretty much everyone who auditioned for New Directions got in, but that was none of his friends' business. Or well, that was how Blaine saw it.)

"What does he look like?" Nick asked curiously, grinning widely. Apparently, Nick hadn't been there when they'd spied on Blaine (and Kurt) the previous day, nor had anyone told him anything about what had happened before the meeting. Blaine was aware that his face must be starting to slowly resemble a tomato.

"Leave him alone, guys," David said, pushing Wes and Thad out of the door and attempting to drag Jeff and Nick along. Needless to say, that didn't quite work and suddenly, Blaine was left with only the two most insane people he'd ever met – who started to immediately fire tons of questions at him, most of which Blaine didn't know how to answer. At the end of the night, Nick and Jeff were fully up-to-date about everything Blaine knew about Kurt. Except for the whole bullying thing. That was a private matter, and Blaine wasn't about to betray Kurt's trust and just tell everyone he knew about what he was going through. No matter what.

When he told Kurt about the interrogation a few days later during lunch, his friend looked greatly amused at what Blaine had had to go through with his friends. As it turned out, the other New Directions members hadn't questioned Kurt about Blaine. Yet. Kurt did assure Blaine, however, that, compared to many of _his_ friends, Jeff and Nick sounded fairly tame. Blaine just vowed to himself never to let those two meet those New Directions kids, if that was the case. They didn't need to get any worse.

* * *

**A/N**: So... Wes&David are more like canon!W&D than fanon!W&D here... but instead, Jeff and Nick are the crazy ones. I also realise that it _is_ slightly useless, to drive to Westerville and back twice on one day... let's pretend it takes a little shorter than two hours. Not like half an hour or something, but... one hour, one and a half hours? Eh, there are many fanfics in which it's not completely right.

Next chapter: the New Directions members find out!

Anyway, let me know what you thought of this, please leave a review! :D


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**: So... yes, this one took a little longer again. My apologies! I had some trouble getting the 'ND finds out' thing right, and I'm still not too sure about it. The chapter itself is still in Blaine's POV, but there's a flashback from Kurt's POV, which is basically the story he tells Blaine at that moment. I thought a flashback would be nicer than a long monologue :)

Well, I hope you'll all like it! Don't forget to leave a review at the bottom ;)

* * *

The rest of the weekend was fairly boring. Not much happened at Dalton. Blaine had to spent more time rehearsing songs than ever, but then again, this was Sectionals, and he was the lead singer. He tried concentrating on his schoolwork, but that didn't always go according to plan. Luckily, now he could use the upcoming competition as an excuse, even though Sectionals was still a few weeks away.

On Tuesday, after Warblers practice, Blaine got a slightly worrying text from Kurt.

_They found out._

Blaine frowned at the message. There was no explanation, no elaboration, nothing. Still, it was evident _what_ 'they' had found out. He then tried calling Kurt, but he didn't pick up the phone. Blaine tried to reason with himself – if Kurt had texted him right after rehearsal, he was probably on his way home now. Of course he didn't answer his phone.

Instead, Blaine send him a text back.

_If you want to talk about it, just call me_.

From what he'd heard, Kurt's Glee club was much more dysfunctional than the Warblers, so there was a bigger chance at someone lashing out at Kurt for being friends with Blaine than the other way around. The Warblers seemed more rational; they talked about stuff. New Directions sounded like a club in which everybody just yelled and screamed and shouted without really listening to each other. Well, to each his own, Blaine supposed.

_I'll tell you this Saturday, okay?_

_We could meet up for coffee now?_

_Now? By the time we're both there, it's dinner time_

Blaine's mind reeled. That was true, and honestly, that was exactly what he'd hoped Kurt would point out. It was just too bad that he hadn't thought of something clever to say to that.

_It'll be my treat_.

Blaine had to physically restrain himself from not reading 'my treat' as 'like a date'. He wanted it to be a date, but he knew that that wasn't possible with Sectionals getting closer and closer. Besides, Kurt's friends had just found out about them knowing each other, and apparently, Kurt didn't want to tell him about their reactions over the phone. That meant they must be bad, right? So if Kurt were to announce that he was now dating Blaine, they would possibly come to Dalton and kill him.

Kurt didn't reply immediately, so Blaine assumed that he was either blocking Blaine from ever contacting him again, or (which was the much more preferred option) asking his father for permission to go out. When he did text back, Blaine was reading the message less than half a second after receiving it.

_Why don't we eat first and then meet up at the Lima Bean? I'll be there as soon as possible._

Blaine tried to ignore the nagging voice in his heard that told him that _see, Kurt didn't want to do couple-y things like that with him_. Instead, he put up his happiest face (even though Kurt couldn't see him) as he texted back, and made to head down to dinner himself. He hoped that there was something eatable there already.

_I'll meet you there :)_

He was well aware that that seemed to be becoming his stock phrase for this type of situation lately, but Kurt wouldn't mind too much, or so Blaine hoped.

o-o-o-o-o

When Blaine arrived, Kurt wasn't there yet. As it was still around dinner time, the Lima Bean was practically deserted, so at least they'd have some sort of privacy. Deciding that, even though Kurt obviously didn't want him to buy dinner, he could still buy Kurt's coffee for him, Blaine went to stand in line. Right after he'd ordered, Kurt walked into the shop. As he made to queue up as well, Blaine waved him over.

"You already ordered?" Kurt sounded surprised.

Blaine shrugged. "Just because you didn't want to accept dinner from me, doesn't mean I won't keep trying to buy you stuff." Okay, that may have come out _completely_ wrong.

Before he could attempt to save himself from more embarrassment, their coffees were ready. Blinking in surprise, Kurt took his cup and followed Blaine to a table away from other customers. "You know my coffee order?" he asked as they sat down.

Blaine smiled, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Had he blown his cover? "Of course I do," he simply said. It was true – why wouldn't he know Kurt's coffee order? In fact, he'd be shocked if Kurt didn't know _his_ coffee order. They'd had coffee numerous times now, always ordering exactly the same things. That wasn't hard to remember, was it?

Taking a sip of his coffee, Kurt relaxed instantly. He smiled back at Blaine after that, so Blaine carefully assumed that Kurt was either still clueless or not minding Blaine's eagerness to learn everything about Kurt too much.

"So, how did they react?" Blaine asked after a minute of silence, during which they'd both just drunk their coffee.

Pulling a face, Kurt set his coffee back on the table and glanced down at his hands. He took a deep breath and said, "I'll just tell you from the beginning, alright?" Blaine nodded, and Kurt started narrating the story to him.

o-o-o-o-o

_When Kurt heard that there was, in fact, a Glee rehearsal that day, he was surprised. After all, they'd all seen Mr Schuester leave rehearsal sick the day before. _

_Then again, maybe he'd only been sick for a day. Or perhaps some other teacher had agreed to sub for the time being. It was neither of those options, as it turned out – instead, Rachel had taken over the club and she was unbearable. When she realised that no one was giving her any solo ideas, she addressed a different matter – their competition at Sectionals. _

"_Kurt," she started, "Noah tells me the boys had you spy on the Warblers last week." Something flashed in her eyes that told Kurt to be careful – she wasn't saying some things. In the meantime, some of the other girls were staring at the boys as if they'd gone crazy. _

"_What were you thinking, sending Kurt there?" Mercedes demanded to know. _

"_Maybe he finally got some action there," Santana said, glancing at Kurt suggestively._

"_It's not safe, going spying on your own," Tina backed up Mercedes. _

"_Dalton's much safer than McKinley," Kurt told the group. "Nothing happened to me _there_." None of them seemed to catch the hint. Sighing, he added, "I didn't spy on them."_

_Rachel nodded curtly and apparently, the rest of the Glee club had already expected that as well. "But you do have access to information about the Warblers, don't you?"_

_Kurt narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you talking about, Rachel?"_

"_Oh, don't play dumb," she snapped. "I have procured a list of names of current Warblers and with that, I searched the internet for any useful information. I never would've thought, but Facebook proved to be a very informative source. So would you care to explain why I found your name on the list of friends of a Warbler by the name of Blaine Anderson?"_

_For now, Kurt figured the best way to go was to continue acting oblivious. "Because we're friends, and I added him on Facebook," he replied as innocently as possible. _

"_You're friends with a Warbler?" Mercedes asked. "How did I not know about this?"_

"_He's obviously just friends with you because he wants information about our club," Rachel said confidently._

"_Dude, you can't trust him!" Finn added. _

"_Wait," Quinn said suddenly, before anyone else could add their two cents and before the room would explode. Turning towards Kurt, she sent him the smallest of smiles. Kurt didn't know why she might be defending him, but he was grateful nonetheless. One ally, no matter who, was much better than none. "When and how did you meet him?"_

_Kurt allowed himself to relax a little – after all, he'd met Blaine a few weeks before their Sectionals competition had been announced. "Around the time we were doing Rocky Horror," he responded. "His car broke down right in front of my dad's shop. We fixed it, and afterwards, he asked if I wanted to go for coffee some time."_

_Santana's smile grew. "So you've been getting it on ever since?"_

_Kurt looked scandalised. "No, Santana. We haven't. We're just friends – I know how what happened the last time one of us tried dating a member of the competition."_

"_So he's gay too?" Rachel asked, ignoring the pointed look Kurt sent her. When Kurt nodded, she added, "Don't you think it's a little suspect that _he_, of all people, brought his car to your dad's garage?"_

"_What are you talking about, Rachel?" Kurt asked, now slowly growing suspect of _her_._

_Rachel waved her hands exasperatedly. "It's obviously a ploy, Kurt, to get to you. It could've been anyone that day, but it was the gay Warbler. They've clearly done their research," she muttered in afterthought. _

"_His car was in desperate need of repair, though," Kurt countered. "And it certainly didn't look like he or his friends had just attempted to damage the car on purpose."_

"_Nobody knew that we were going to compete against the Warblers when we were doing Rocky Horror," Quinn reminded Rachel. "They had no reason at all to target Kurt at that point."_

"_It's still suspicious," Rachel muttered, crossing her arms. "Are you two still hanging out now?" she asked Kurt, sounding rather unhappy. _

"_Yes, we are," he replied somewhat forcefully. "Hardly anything about Glee club ever comes up."_

"_So you don't know anything about the Warblers?" Rachel asked with a slight pout. _

_Kurt shook his head. "No, I don't – just that they are very busy preparing for Sectionals, which is something we could learn from. We mainly talk about other stuff."_

"_Like?" Tina prodded._

_Kurt huffed. "That is none of your business. All _you_ need to know is that we're not dating, we met before we knew we'd be competing against each other, and we don't talk about our respective Glee clubs." _

_Some of his teammates shifted in their seats, clearly not completely down with that. Rachel's demeanour, however, appeared to have changed radically. "We just don't want to see you get hurt," she told him. "After what happened with Jesse – I don't want that to happen to you, Kurt. You don't seem as lonely anymore as you were a couple of weeks ago, but you need to be careful, you know?"_

_For the first time that day, she seemed to have said something the entire team agreed with. It was a little freaky but, Kurt found, very touching as well. _

"_Of course I'm careful," he assured them. "But Blaine wouldn't hurt a fly."_

"_Does Burt know about him?" Finn asked, seemingly in overprotective not-quite-stepbrother-yet mode all of a sudden._

"_I just told you that I met Blaine when he brought his car to the shop," he reminded Finn. "Of course my dad knows." He was not going to tell his friends about last week's incident in the basement._

"_We want to meet him, though," Quinn warned him. _

_The other Glee club members nodded in agreement. "You may be safe, but we'll be the judge if he's good for you," Mercedes added. _

_Even Puck nodded, though he was cracking his knuckles at the same time. "We'll have to have a little… talk with him at Sectionals."_

_Kurt groaned. Yes, his friends had actually reacted quite well (mainly because of Quinn's intervention, but still) to the news of him hanging out with Blaine, but now he had to find a way to keep them from completely intimidating his friend at the upcoming competition._

o-o-o-o-o

"You know, when you told me about your friends, I expected them to react worse than that," Blaine commented. Not that he wasn't relieved that Kurt's friends didn't immediately hate him, of course. But he'd still have to watch his back at Sectionals.

"So did I, which is why I wanted to tell you I person anyway," Kurt admitted. "I think it helped that we met before the real competition season started."

"And everyone seems to like you, as opposed to Rachel," Blaine added with a slight smile.

Kurt nodded earnestly. "That's so very true. Quinn never would've stuck up for Rachel like that. Of course, I'm shocked that she helped _me_, but…"

"You never really got along?" Blaine asked, wrecking his brain in an attempt to remember everything Kurt had told him about the head cheerleader who'd been pregnant the year before. Oh right, those were the most memorable facts about the girl.

Kurt shrugged. "She's the head cheerleader. Before Glee, she never really had a reason to interact with me, and she preferred not to even during her first few months in the club. At the end of last school year, she moved in with Mercedes' family for a while, so that was a time we hung out more. She's nice, but she's just a little _too_ concerned about her popularity."

Blaine nodded, taking it all in. Quinn sounded a lot like Nick's girlfriend Amanda, but even more extreme.

"Sorry I couldn't make it to dinner, by the way," Kurt apologised. "My dad insisted that I taught him how to properly prepare chicken."

"And?" Blaine urged him on, knowing from earlier stories that Kurt's dad couldn't cook to save his life.

Rolling his eyes good-naturedly, Kurt continued. "I made him watch while I did everything. Do you really think I'd let him do all that damage to the kitchen? It was much safer this way. Maybe I'll let him help next time."

Blaine chuckled. "Reminds me of the first time I tried to make an omelette." Seeing Kurt's judging look, he added, "Don't ask. I don't know what I was thinking anyway, using the largest pan my mum had and adding rainbow coloured sprinkles."

"I bet that was when your parents first had a feeling you might be gay," Kurt deadpanned.

"Who knows," Blaine muttered. "Either way, there are still black spots on the ceiling from that particular incident."

"I don't even _want_ to know," Kurt told him, shaking his head.

"Do you want some more coffee?" Blaine asked, trying to steer the conversation away from his own embarrassing childhood memories.

Kurt shook his head. "No, thanks. I think I should get going soon. My dad told me not to stay out too late. Apparently, it's going to pour later."

Blaine frowned. He hated driving in the rain. "Are you still staying safe, by the way?" he asked before thinking it through. When Kurt just looked confused, he added, "I mean, with the bullying. It's not getting out of hand? Is he laying off of you already?"

"I wish," Kurt muttered. "But no. It's getting worse – he shoves me into lockers every time he sees me in a corridor, and he just… threatens me whenever I talk back."

"He threatens you?" Blaine asked, alarmed. "How? Kurt – it's not safe there for you, one of these days, he's – "

"I know," Kurt said softly. "I know it's not. But I'm fine, alright? I get by. I have friends at McKinley, and I have you – I'm not completely alone. And his threats – well, they're mostly about punching me."

Though Kurt tried to act indifferently, Blaine knew it was getting to him. But he also knew that Kurt didn't want him to feel sorry for him. "Just be safe," he therefore told him urgently. "And if there's anything at all, no matter what the time, call me."

Kurt nodded dutifully. "And what about your dad, Blaine?"

Knowing fully well that Kurt was mainly doing this in an attempt to not seem like the weak and helpless one in their friendship (which was definitely not how Blaine perceived him), Blaine shrugged. "I haven't been home for some weeks now. I spoke to my mum on the phone last week, but that's always rather superficial. I think they're at the other side of the country now. I can't bring myself to care a whole lot, to be honest."

"You know you're always welcome at our house, right?" Kurt asked. "So don't hesitate to stop by every now and then. I think my dad's taken a liking in you. He won't mind."

Filing that information away for later, Blaine smiled. "Thanks. I'll keep it in mind." He glanced out of the window. "It's getting dark. Do you want to go?"

"Yeah," Kurt responded, looking outside as well. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N**: So, what did you think? :) Let me know, please review! :D


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**: This must be the quickest update in the history of this story ;) Not sure if I can keep that up, though. I suppose I should tell you that I changed some minor details in previous chapters - nothing very notable, but just so that some (minor) details make sense and such...  
A lot of stuff happens in this chapter that I didn't plan to happen (such as, apparently, I was in the mood to write Blaine's parents... mostly because I wanted some kind of conflict. Not that it's really conflict, or anything. Just... some stuff happening beyond the boys hanging out), but I hope you'll like it anyway :) I'm also trying to stick to the canon storyline a bit, though obviously things are going to happen that aren't canon. - I'm blabbering, so that's the end of this note.

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy the chapter, and don't forget to leave a review at the bottom! :)

* * *

"Hello, earth to Blaine." Blaine snapped out of his daze, blinking furiously at the group of boys in front of him.

"What is it?" he asked confusedly.

"You were daydreaming again," David informed him, while Jeff and Nick just looked on excitedly. "About your New Directions friend again, I assume?"

Nick rolled his eyes while Jeff said, "Well, of course. Who else could it be about?"

Blaine reddened immediately; luckily, his skin wasn't as pale as… Kurt's, for instance, so the blush wasn't all too visible.

"You have to introduce him to us at Sectionals!" Nick suggested, bouncing in his seat. "It'll be so great! We'll finally get to see what he's like and who the guy is who singlehandedly turned Blaine into a lovesick teenager! We'll find out if Blaine has good taste – "

"Are you sure you're not secretly gay, too, Nick?" Wes asked from where he was sitting, two seats down from Blaine.

Blaine didn't hear Nick's (probably indignant) response to that, as he sat thinking about Kurt again. Which reminded him, they were supposed to hang out together later. He was glad that the day's Warblers meeting wouldn't take as long as usual, so he would be able to go home early, get changed into Kurt-approved clothes (or rather, clothes he _hoped_ Kurt would approve of; he could never be completely sure) and mentally prepare himself for when Kurt would arrive. It was the first time they were going to hang out at Blaine's house, and he was a bit nervous. What if Kurt decided that Blaine _was_ actually just a spoilt brat? What if he'd leave and never want anything to do with Blaine whatsoever?

Fortunately, Blaine was able to get rid of these thoughts eventually and concentrate a bit better during Warbler rehearsal, so at least Wes couldn't get angry at him for not focussing. They had finally figured out what song they were doing for Sectionals, and now they had to figure out harmonies and choreography – or something like it.

Blaine was just told to practise the song a couple of times a day before the next rehearsal, so they would have a basic idea of what it sounded like. Once that was all out of the way, they could start perfecting it for the big competition.

The drive home from Dalton wasn't all too long; still, Blaine was glad he didn't have to drive it every day. His house, while somewhat homely, was usually empty when his parents weren't around, and even if they were, Blaine wasn't all that keen on frequently visiting them. He liked staying at Dalton much better; at least his friends were around there, and things weren't as awkward.

Hanging out with Kurt, though, was a good enough reason for Blaine to go home for a day. He figured they could hang out at Dalton as well, but with all his friends wanting to meet Kurt, maybe that would have to wait for a little longer.

He didn't want to scare off Kurt, after all.

Arriving home, he dashed around the house, changing out of his uniform (but putting it in his car so he wouldn't forget about it later), preparing food and drinks and movies and mentally going over any subject they could talk about. Then he realised that Kurt would probably want to see his room, since Blaine had already seen his, and he promptly ran back to his room to make it look at least slightly lived in, even though he knew that Kurt was aware that he didn't come home too often. He also threw out some old clothes and generally almost _cleaned_ his room (something he didn't bother to do very often, as much as it shamed him to admit), hoping that Kurt wouldn't mind if his clothes and hair were slightly ruffled now.

When he was about to go downstairs again, he heard a voice behind him. "Blaine! You didn't tell us you were coming home today!"

Blaine froze. No way. Out of all the random days his parents came home (which he usually wasn't too aware of, as he was usually in school then), this was definitely the worst day they could've picked. "Mom!" he exclaimed, surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you and dad were… gone until at least the end of the month."

His mother smiled at him. "The plans changed. We're home now, until tomorrow evening, and then we'll be gone until a few days before Christmas."

Blaine took a deep breath. He'd never admit it, but sometimes he was a little jealous of Kurt, who, at least, had kind of a normal family life. But he didn't want his parents to just be around more – most kids at Dalton didn't know any better, sadly enough – no, he wanted them to accept him more than anything. "Oh," he eventually uttered. "Alright."

"But why are you here?" his mother asked, watching him curiously.

Oh, God. What now? Before he could even think of a response, the door bell rang, and his mother sent him a questioning glance.

"I'll – I'll get it," Blaine muttered, before rushing down the stairs. Maybe it wasn't too late to change their plans; maybe they could just go to the closest mall and hang out –

He opened the door hastily, and, as expected, there stood Kurt, dressed to the nines as always, and smiling brightly. "Hey, Blaine!" he greeted him. "You really have a beautiful house – "

"My parents are home," Blaine interrupted him, now starting to panic. "I mean – hi, Kurt. Uh – "

"Should I leave?" Kurt asked worriedly, but Blaine shook his head.

"You just got here, it's a two hour drive! It's – okay. I mean, maybe we should hang out somewhere else but – "

"Blaine?" his mother's voice came from behind him. "Who's this?"

Turning around nervously, he replied, "This is my friend, Kurt. We were supposed to hang out today…"

His mother glanced between the two of them, and Blaine knew that she realised that Kurt was gay as well, and that she probably didn't approve of the thought of the two of them being in the same house together without anyone else around. In the end, she smiled a little. "Just don't make too much noise, your father's in his study," she told Blaine, before gesturing to Kurt. "Aren't you going to invite him in? That's why he's here, right?"

Kurt glanced at Blaine for confirmation, so Blaine smiled at him. "Right, of course," he said. "Sorry, Kurt. Come on in." As he held open the door for Kurt, Kurt rolled his eyes slightly. However, if the light blush on his cheeks was any indication, he _did_ appreciate the gesture.

"Hello, Kurt," Blaine's mother greeted him with a small smile, sticking out her arm for him to shake. "I'm Martha Anderson, Blaine's mother."

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs Anderson," Kurt replied, shaking her hand. "I'm Kurt Hummel, a friend of Blaine's."

"You're at Dalton as well?" Blaine's mother asked, once more looking from Kurt to Blaine and back.

"Oh, no, I'm from Lima," Kurt responded hastily.

"You're the boy from that garage," Blaine's mother said, realisation dawning on her. "Blaine told us you're quite the mechanic."

"Right," Blaine interrupted her, before she could start full-out interrogating Kurt. "Why don't we – grab some food in the kitchen and head upstairs?"

"Keep your door open, Blaine," his mother instructed him.

"You just said dad's in his study!" Blaine protested half-heartedly. "If we have to keep the door open, we can hardly talk!"

Naturally, if Blaine had his way and there was no upcoming competition, he could thing of a few activities – _no_, he shouldn't think about that. Those were bad thoughts. Very undapper, too.

"Just don't disturb him too much," his mother conceded, though Blaine knew that his father would get mad at him no matter what his mother said.

"Sure," he muttered. After helping Kurt out of his coat (which was hardly necessary, but that was beside the point), he led his friend to the kitchen, where Blaine had to explain that no, they didn't have a cook. They had one when Blaine was younger and his parents were home more frequently, but now that they were all gone more often than not, they didn't really need a cook anymore.

Blaine still felt slightly nervous about Kurt seeing his room, but as it turned out, there was absolutely no need for that. Kurt seemed to feel at ease there immediately and walked over to have a better look at some of the pictures Blaine had put up.

At that moment, Blaine was glad that he hadn't put up a picture of Kurt here just yet. He'd been planning to, but since he lived at Dalton most of the time, he hadn't had much time to do that yet. Besides, it saved him from having to come up with an explanation of how he'd gotten a hold of those pictures. Kurt didn't need to know that Blaine had spent some time looking through all of Kurt's (and Kurt's friends') Facebook photos and then printed some of them.

Kurt would undoubtedly find that creepy.

"Are these the Warblers?" Kurt's voice shook him out of his reverie.

Blaine walked over to the wall to inspect the picture Kurt indicated. "Yeah, they are," he replied. "Or rather, they're my closest friends in the Warblers, though I have no idea why I put up with them."

Kurt smiled brightly. "I wonder the same thing about New Directions sometimes. We drive each other crazy and it's a normal occurrence for there to be some kind of fight, but in the end, we're a family." He paused for a moment, scrunching up his face. "A very dysfunctional family, that is."

"I guess you're right," Blaine agreed. "I don't know what I'd do without them. Um – you can sit down, if you want." As Kurt hesitantly sat down on the bed, Blaine handed him his glass of water before putting the snacks on his desk. "So, how've you been? Did your friends interrogate you any more?"

"Fortunately, no," Kurt responded, taking a sip of his water. "Then again, I don't have many classes with most of them and Rachel didn't get to take charge in Glee club today. What about you? Did anything exciting happen at Dalton lately?"

"If you would call heaps of homework exciting… otherwise, not really."

Soon, the conversation flowed from school to musicals and many other topics. It once again amazed Blaine how freely he could talk about everything when he was around Kurt. They were never at a loss for words, it seemed.

Blaine didn't really have anyone else to talk to about some things (like gay politics, for instance), and he was fairly certain that the same was true for Kurt. It was nice to just have someone to talk to… someone like him.

He wasn't sure how long they sat there, but apparently, they got too loud at some point. Neither boy realised this at first, but all of a sudden, someone cleared their throat in the doorway and both boys sharply turned towards the noise.

"Hey, dad," Blaine greeted him awkwardly.

His father didn't seem to be in the mood to exchange pleasantries. "Blaine," he acknowledged him. "Your mother said you were here. She didn't tell me you had a… friend over." From the look he was giving Kurt, Blaine gathered that he did not approve of him.

Blaine knew that Kurt was generally more perceptive than he was, so it wasn't like Kurt didn't realise that Blaine's father didn't like him very much. Still, he didn't let the dirty look deter him. "Hello, Mr Anderson," he said in an even voice, standing up and walking over to the door. "It's – "

"Who's this?" Blaine eyed his father in disbelief.

"This is Kurt," he replied, slightly shocked. Usually, his father wasn't this rude.

"One of your Dalton friends?"

Blaine shook his head slowly. "No, Kurt's the one who fixed my car when it broke down, remember?"

The look his father shot Kurt said enough; he did not believe at all that Kurt fixed cars or anything of the sort. Luckily, he didn't say it out loud. "Keep it down, would you? I can't concentrate." He frowned. "Or close the door, so I won't hear you two."

"Mom said to keep the door open," Blaine responded, nearly withholding a sigh.

His father looked from him to Kurt and back, slowly realising something that Blaine had expected him to realise the moment he'd come in. "Then go downstairs and watch a movie or something," he instructed Blaine before stalking back to his study.

Kurt, still standing, looked at Blaine in shock. "Sorry you had to witness that," Blaine muttered, rubbing his face. "Normally he at least tries to be civil, I don't know what went wrong."

"It's alright," Kurt replied, sitting back down, "it's not your fault." As he put his hand on Blaine's arm comfortingly, Blaine froze for a moment. After a moment, however, he managed to let himself relax again, and he shot Kurt a shaky smile.

"Still, he shouldn't have done that," he said quietly. "So do you want to go downstairs then?"

Kurt smiled back at him, taking his hand off of Blaine's arm (Blaine sighed somewhat regretfully at that). "Sure, that's fine with me. What movies do you have?"

Blaine smirked, his eyes shining mischievously. "Well, we've got Bambi, for one…"

o-o-o-o-o

Two days later, Blaine was positively giddy. He had a _date_ tonight, after all, even if it wasn't _officially_ a date, and neither he nor Kurt had said it was a date, but it felt more like a date than like two friends just hanging out, so Blaine thought it might be a date.

And he couldn't wait.

"And don't forget," Wes reminded the group at the end of Warblers rehearsal, "tonight's movie night for everyone who's staying at Dalton this weekend."

"You'll be there, right?" Jeff asked Blaine happily. "Nick's going home for the weekend – apparently, Amanda was throwing a fit yesterday on the phone because they've hardly seen each other for ages. But you're coming, right?"

"I can't," Blaine said apologetically. "Sorry."

"You're going home this weekend, too?" Trent, who'd been listening in on the conversation again, asked, sounding surprised.

"Oh, no, I'm staying at Dalton this weekend," Blaine hastily replied. "But I've already got plans for tonight, I managed to get tickets for _Rent_ at the community theatre in Lima."

"Cool," Jeff replied, frowning slightly, "I guess."

"So you propose we're going to see a musical instead of having a movie night?" Wes asked, standing up from his chair behind the council table as the meeting had officially ended.

Blaine blinked. If he'd known it would be this easy to get his friends to come and watch a musical with him, he would've tried this years ago. "No, I think it's already sold out," he replied, feeling slightly uneasy under his friends' stares, "and I only managed to score two tickets anyway…"

"You're going on a date with Kurt?" Nick asked, squeezing in between Jeff and Blaine excitedly.

"Well, it's not _really_ a date…," Blaine trailed off, knowing that he was probably blushing by now.

"Did you pay for both tickets?" David asked, taking a seat opposite Blaine now.

Blaine shrugged. "Yes, I did. Why?"

"Are you picking him up before and driving him home afterwards?" David continued, exchanging a smug smile with Wes.

"Yes." David always did this, asking people a bunch of questions without telling them what he was on about.

"Do you plan on holding his hand the entire time?"

Blaine flushed. "I'm not… planning to do that, but… I mean, if he's alright with it, I don't know, maybe?"

"Are you paying for any snacks or beverages?"

"He probably won't let me," Blaine responded, and it was true. Kurt was quite stubborn (then again, Blaine could be stubborn as well), and would not be alright with it if Blaine paid for the entire night.

"It's a date," David concluded, and Nick and Wes nodded in agreement.

"Only you don't know it," Nick added.

"Or you do know it, maybe you both know it, but neither of you dares to admit it," Jeff said, smiling again. "That's so – "

"Don't," Wes interrupted him. "Don't finish that sentence, Jeff, I swear – "

"Alright, alright," Jeff muttered quasi-angrily. "Hey, Blaine?"

"Hm?"

"When does the show start?"

"What – " Blaine started, not understanding what Jeff was talking about. Then he noticed the time and his eyes widened. Hastily mumbling an excuse, he sprinted out of the meeting room and to his dorm room. It was a good thing he'd already chosen his outfit for the night, or else he'd be in even bigger trouble.

After hastily changing out of his uniform and into his carefully laid out clothes, he checked (and double-checked) to see if he had his car keys, his wallet, the tickets… When he was certain that he hadn't forgotten anything, he made his way down to the parking lot.

On his way to Lima, Blaine tried not to think about what his friends had said about this being a date. That made him wonder, couldn't two friends (who were both male and both gay) just enjoy a musical together? Did it _have_ to be a romantic outing? He knew he wanted it to be, but Kurt probably did not.

Still, Kurt had been wildly enthusiastic when Blaine had revealed to him that he had, in fact, managed to score two tickets for the musical. He'd been forced to tell Kurt about it over the phone, but judging from how Kurt had almost squealed down the line, he supposed he could safely say that the tickets were definitely worth the money.

When he arrived at Kurt's house, Blaine was suddenly filled with nerves. What if it didn't go well? Or worse, what if Kurt had stood him up? He quickly looked up when the door opened, only to be met by the intimidating form of Kurt's father, who scrutinised him for a moment.

"He'll be down in a minute," Mr Hummel told him, and Blaine nodded weakly. After a moment, Kurt's dad continued speaking. "You'll bring him back here after?"

"Of course," Blaine managed to say, attempting to smile.

Mr Hummel seemed to be contemplating something. "If you want to, you can sleep here tonight, kid," he told Blaine. "Westerville's a two hour drive, I know that much, and I'm not sure if this is the time of year you want to be out driving late."

"That's really unnecessary, Mr Hummel," Blaine replied. "I wouldn't want to be a burden."

Mr Hummel eyed him sternly for a moment before telling him, "I'll make the couch for you when I go to bed. I'm sure Kurt has some old pyjamas that'll fit you."

"What? Why?" While they'd been talking, Kurt had come upstairs, and he was now looking between his father and Blaine with a confused face.

"Because I'm not letting Blaine drive back to Westerville so late at night," his father repeated, and Kurt's face softened.

"Oh, right," he said. "Of course." He smiled at Blaine, who was admiring Kurt's outfit. "Hey, Blaine. Shall we go?"

Blaine nodded wordlessly, and after a short lecture about driving safely from Kurt's father, they were out of the door. "You look amazing," Blaine blurted out, before mentally scolding himself. That was much too date-like, right? You didn't tell a friend that, no matter how good they looked.

Right?

Blaine wasn't so sure about this whole dating (or lack thereof) thing.

"Thanks," Kurt replied, blushing a bit. "So do you."

Blaine couldn't keep the grin off of his face; he was glad Kurt approved of his outfit.

On the way to the theatre, Kurt kept talking excitedly about the musical, and Blaine let him. Kurt's enthusiasm was infectious, and besides, why would he interrupt Kurt's musings when Kurt's voice was pretty much the most beautiful sound in the world?

Soon after they'd arrived, the musical started, and at some point, Blaine had to place a hand on Kurt's shoulder (while trying to ignore what the physical contact did to him) to get the other boy to stop bouncing in his chair. As the show progressed, Kurt calmed down, even leaning slightly on Blaine's shoulder after a while.

Like Blaine had already expected, Kurt insisted on paying for their drinks during intermission. What he hadn't expected, however, was to see such a determined look in Kurt's eyes when he returned. Before he could ask what was wrong, Kurt already started speaking.

"Blaine, what exactly are we doing?"

Okay – Blaine hadn't seen that coming. "W-What?" he stammered. "What do you mean?" Kurt seemed to deflate instantly and groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Kurt?" Blaine asked, worried. "What's wrong? I just – what context are you talking about?"

"I made up the whole thing in my head, didn't I?" Kurt muttered.

Now Blaine was really lost for words. "Kurt," he said softly, trying to embrace the other boy even in their fairly awkward positions.

Kurt, however, shook his arms off. "It's okay," he said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "It's not like it's the first time." Before Blaine could say anything, Kurt continued. "I just thought that for once – Blaine. Seriously. What is it that we're doing? Are we dating? Because I'm pretty sure we're not, but we do constantly go out for coffee and now this and – "

"Kurt," Blaine interrupted him. "Kurt. You're right, we're not, but – no, just listen, alright? You said that dating people from other teams you're competing against was not done in your club, right?"

"If that's the only thing stopping us, we can keep it a secret," Kurt suggested, still not looking very happy.

Blaine smiled unwillingly. "We could," he agreed. "_Or_ we could – if you want to, that is – just keep hanging out for the time being, and go on 'non-dates' all the time."

"You mean, we don't call them that but they kind of _are_ dates?" Kurt asked.

"In a way, yes."

"So I'm _not_ making it all up?" Kurt asked. "You _do_ like me?"

"Of course I do," Blaine replied. "I don't see how there are people who don't like you."

Kurt rolled his eyes, but there was an obvious smile on his face. "Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do, Blaine."

Blaine sent him a curious look, but Kurt refused to elaborate. Blaine sniffed. "Well, that feeling's mutual."

Kurt laughed at this. "Come on now, let's find our seats again."

As soon as the second act began, Kurt put his head back on Blaine's shoulder. In retaliation (well, sort of), Blaine wrapped his left arm around Kurt and pulled him a bit closer, which was slightly awkward for both of them, as Kurt was still a tad taller than Blaine was.

The drive home was spent similarly to the car ride to the theatre, only now, Blaine did flail along with Kurt – while keeping both his hands and most of his attention on the road, of course.

The weirdest part of the evening was definitely the fact that Blaine was staying at the Hummel house for the night, which had Kurt frowning as they stood in front of the front door together.

"So I'm not getting a kiss goodnight?" he asked with a slight pout, and if Blaine had been drinking something at that moment, he would've sprayed it all over Kurt. Not a nice thought.

Either way, he knew he'd flushed bright red. "I – I thought we were going to… you know."

"Take it slow and just go on non-dates that _are_, actually dates?" Kurt finished for him. "Only we don't call them that?" When Blaine nodded, he asked, "Just one, then? One small kiss?"

Blaine groaned. "I doubt I'll be able to stop or think straight once I've kissed you."

"True," Kurt admitted, obviously trying to keep from smiling. "But… I doubt I'll mind it a whole lot if you kiss me more than once."

When Blaine didn't react, Kurt rolled his eyes and leaned forward, still waiting for Blaine to close the gap – which, of course, he eventually did. It was a small, chaste kiss, but it was enough to turn Blaine's insides into goo.

Kurt smiled impishly as he broke the kiss. "Come on, let's go inside. I'll see if I can find you some old pyjamas to sleep in."

And well, if that wasn't the absolutely wrong thing to say at that moment. Blaine followed Kurt inside, his mind still reeling. There was no doubt in his mind that he'd be having some sweet dreams tonight.

* * *

**A/N**: Yeah. That whole date? Not the plan. (I mean, yes, they were going to see _Rent_, but that was all) I hope you all liked the chapter, and please let me know what you think in a review! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**: So... chapter 7. It's not as long as the last one, but I hope you'll like it anyway :) Much like half the things that happened in the previous chapter, none of this was planned either. In fact, the stuff that was supposed to happen in this chapter will now happen in chapter 8 (so yeah, this story will also have another chapter more than planned). I hope the characters (especially Burt :\) aren't (too) OOC here... Not much happens here, but I hope you'll like it anyway :D Please leave a review at the bottom!

* * *

The next morning, Blaine woke up when he heard footsteps on the stairs. For a moment, he was completely disoriented; this didn't look like his house or his dorm at all, and this certainly wasn't his bed either. When Kurt's father came into view – most likely just checking to see if Blaine was really on the couch – Blaine remembered where he was and how he'd gotten there.

He was glad Mr Hummel didn't come in and interrogate him about their night – for he wasn't quite sure how to explain what had happened, even to himself – but instead just said, "Morning, Blaine. You can use the upstairs bathroom if you want."

Blaine nodded, a little dazed still. "Thanks, Mr Hummel."

Kurt's father seemed to hesitate for a moment before telling him, "Just call me Burt, kid."

Smiling slightly to himself, Blaine sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes. He suddenly caught sight of his phone – which he'd set to silent the previous night – and noticed, to his surprise, that he had more than ten missed calls and even more text messages. He picked up his phone and looked through the calls and texts – they were all from his friends.

All of a sudden, Blaine realised that he hadn't informed them of the fact that he'd be staying at Kurt's after the non-date. His blood running cold, he grabbed the phone and hurried out of the living room, stumbled upstairs, and dove into the bathroom as soon as he'd found it – without, of course, remembering to bring his clothes as well. He'd worry about that later, though, as he now had more urgent matters to attend.

Scrolling through the lists of calls and texts, he concluded that the last person to have called him was Wes, about ten minutes before Jeff had last texted him - which had been in the middle of the night.

_We'll just assume you're at Kurt's for now. If we haven't heard from you in the morning, we're calling your parents and/or the police._

It was still early, and weekend, but Blaine figured it'd be best to call his friends nevertheless. He waited impatiently for Wes to pick up his phone, and when that happened, Blaine was met by a cacophony of voices, all shouting and screaming at him. Had everyone slept in one room, or what?

"Wes?" Blaine asked tentatively.

"Where were you last night?" the head councilman demanded. "Why didn't you pick up your phone?"

"I set it to silent before the show started," Blaine replied, shifting uncomfortably even though his friends were nowhere near him. "I must've forgotten to switch it back afterwards."

Not that he thought Kurt or his father would've appreciated being awoken by Blaine's phone in the middle of the night.

"So are you still at Kurt's house?" Wes asked, sounding almost amused while asking that question.

"Yes, I am," Blaine confirmed. Hearing some loud whoops and laughing through the phone, he frowned. "Am I on speakerphone, Wes?"

"Yeah, you are," Wes replied, obviously grinning or something like it. "I must say, Blaine, I'm impressed. You work pretty quickly. Does his dad know you're there?"

Blaine fought the urge to roll his eyes. "It was his dad's idea, actually. He didn't want me to have to drive back to Westerville after the show, so he set up the couch for me. Which is where I stayed the entire night, if you must know."

"Alright, alright," Wes said. "Could you just let us know when you're staying over the next time?"

"You're not my parents," Blaine protested. "Why were you even so worried? You never worry whenever David stays out for a night, or Jeff."

"You're not Jeff, or David," Wes replied. "It was the first time you were gone the entire night, we weren't exactly sure where you could be, and besides, something could've happened to you, Blaine. You could've been in an accident, or a bunch of homophobes could've cornered you on your way out of the theatre. Besides, the reason we normally don't worry is because we're told if someone'll stay away for the night, either before going out or by text. We're your friends, Blaine. Friends should look out for each other, right?"

Blaine sighed. He hadn't known about that, to be honest. "Right," he said. "Sorry, Wes. But you didn't ask either."

"We figured you'd come back," Wes responded. For a moment, there was a silence. "We'll talk when you get back to Dalton, alright?"

"Sure," Blaine replied, not really looking forward to _that_ talk.

After hanging up again, Blaine walked back downstairs to grab his clothes, and he bumped into Kurt's father (he'd need some time to get used to calling the man 'Burt'). "Uh – " he started not-very-eloquently, but Mr Hummel didn't seem fazed by that.

"I'm going to the garage now," he told Blaine, who only then remembered that the car shop was, indeed, opened on Saturdays. "I'm just going to have to trust you boys to stay here alone. No funny business, understood?"

Blaine gaped at him. "No, of course not, sir," he replied dutifully. Did Kurt's dad –

He didn't really have any time to think about that, as the man had left the house already and now Blaine was just standing there in the hallway; at least, until he got his feet to move again. He moved to the living room almost mechanically, picked up his clothes and left his phone on the table, and walked back upstairs. He'd see if Kurt was awake already when he was done in the bathroom. He didn't want his friend (or what was it that they were now?) to see him with his hair like this. Pausing on the top of the stairs, Blaine realised that he hadn't brought any hair gel. He hadn't seen anything of the kind in the bathroom just now, and while he was certain that Kurt must have some sort of stuff to put in his hair, he wasn't sure if he could just ask. After all, Kurt would notice his hair if he did. Perhaps he could just sneak into Kurt's bathroom, apply some of Kurt's product(s), and then wake up Kurt.

By the time he walked back downstairs, however, it was clear to him that Kurt was, in fact, already up and awake, and making breakfast in the kitchen. For a moment, Blaine contemplated sneaking past and going downstairs anyway – he could always claim he hadn't noticed Kurt already being up – to get some hair product, but then his stomach rumbled rather loudly, and Kurt glanced up.

For a moment, Blaine thought Kurt wasn't going to take any notice of the different way his hair was styled (if you could call it that, as Blaine hadn't done anything to it yet), but then Kurt's eyes travelled upwards. Blaine smiled sheepishly, debating whether he should enter the kitchen or run back upstairs.

"Your hair…," Kurt muttered. To Blaine's surprise, he sounded almost in awe; not at all what Blaine had been expecting.

"I know, it's awful," he said nevertheless. "Good morning to you too, by the way. I was just wondering if I would have to wake you up. But can I borrow some of your product? I didn't bring any gel with me."

Kurt looked at him for a moment before moving over towards Blaine. With a slight smirk, he muttered, "If I'd have known that, I would've stayed in my bed for a little longer." Experimentally, he reached out to Blaine's hair. "And your hair's not awful. I actually like this much better than when you gel it down like that. So no, you can't use any of my stuff to strap it down again." When Blaine pouted at him, Kurt rolled his eyes. After giving Blaine a light peck on the lips, he muttered, "Good morning," before walking back into the kitchen. As Blaine remained standing there, shocked to the core, Kurt called out, "Oh, and by the way, I now expect you to wear your hair like that every time we hang out."

Blaine finally moved from his spot and followed Kurt into the kitchen. "You know I can't do that. I like my hair when it's gelled, and I'm sure there's a school rule against wearing it like this."

Now, it was Kurt's time to pout. "Fine. Just… wear it like this when you're not coming straight from class or rehearsal?"

"I'll think about it," Blaine promised, sitting down at the table, since Kurt was all done with the cooking anyway. "We need to talk, though."

Kurt glanced at him, blinking curiously. "You're already breaking up with me?" he guessed.

"You mean we are officially together?" Blaine retaliated. It was exactly this – what were they and what were they going to do about it and what did it all mean? – that he wanted to discuss.

Kurt seemed to ponder this question for a moment. "Well, I don't just go around kissing people," he replied, trying to sound casual, but Blaine could definitely hear the slightly nervous undertones.

"Good, me neither," Blaine said, smiling at Kurt. After hesitating for a moment, he added, "You know, last night _was_ technically my first kiss."

"Seriously?" Kurt sounded shocked. "Mine too. Well – with a boy, that is." Noticing Blaine's intrigued look, he shook his head. "I'll tell you some other time."

"You've kissed girls before?" Blaine couldn't help but ask.

"_A_ girl," Kurt corrected him. "Fine. Yes, I have. I'm not inclined to repeat that action anytime soon."

"I hope not," Blaine said, causing Kurt to start blushing.

"So we're… together, right?" Kurt asked. "Boyfriends?"

He sounded so hopeful in that moment that Blaine couldn't help but reach out and take both Kurt's hands. "If you want us to be," he replied, a smile tugging at his lips.

Kurt smiled back bashfully. "Of course I do," he said softly.

"Except we can't tell anyone yet because we'd have two Glee clubs out for our blood?" Blaine added, figuring that, even if both their clubs would be unexpectedly alright with the two of them dating, they'd all at least attempt to make sure their respective teammates were treated alright.

Kurt pressed his lips together in frustration. "Mercedes told me that they'd be happy for me if we started dating, actually," he confessed. "Still, it'd be too much like last year's Jesse St James situation, so maybe we should keep it quiet until Sectionals."

"Sectionals is two weeks away," Blaine reasoned. "That should be doable, right?"

Kurt nodded, though not looking too happy. "We shouldn't have to do this," he mumbled.

"We shouldn't," Blaine agreed, "but look on the bright side – at least we've got something to keep hidden, right?"

Kurt, who, Blaine noticed, had somehow managed to eat his breakfast during the conversation, while Blaine still had his platter full of food, grinned at him. "That's true," he admitted. "Now, eat your breakfast; I think I've got some movies we can watch before you need to go back to Dalton – which is before my dad comes home."

"Can we cuddle?" Blaine asked hopefully.

"Of course we can," Kurt promised, standing up from the table and putting his plate in the sink. Blaine didn't remember ever eating as quickly as he did then.

o-o-o-o-o

By the time Blaine arrived back at Dalton, it was almost dinnertime. The day had flown by, but Kurt had ushered him out of the door around four, which was usually the time Kurt's father closed the shop on Saturdays. While no funny business had happened at all, Blaine didn't think Mr Hummel would be very impressed if he came home while Blaine was still there.

Blaine couldn't help the fact that he'd been sporting a silly grin the entire ride back, but now, he tried to wipe it off. If he didn't, one of his normally very oblivious friends (only rivalled by Blaine himself) was bound to take notice, deduce that something had happened, and then proceed to head over to Lima to interrogate Kurt. That, in turn, would warn Kurt's friends that something was going on, causing _them_ to come to Dalton and (possibly) torture Blaine.

Yes, it was of utmost importance that Blaine entered the school with a mostly blank look on his face.

He managed to make it to his room without being seen by too many people. Once there, he quickly gelled his hair back (even if Kurt liked his hair better without any gel, that didn't mean that Blaine should never gel it ever again). After that, he left again, heading towards the dining hall, in search of his friends.

They found him before he could even start looking for them, though, and they pounced on him immediately, asking how the 'date' had done and how on earth he'd managed to be allowed to sleep on the couch.

"You got to stay the entire day while his dad was out?" Trent asked, impressed.

"That's never happened to me," Jeff added, narrowing his eyes at Blaine. "How _do_ you do that?"

Blaine grinned, putting on his mask. "I think it might help that we're just friends and neither of us can get pregnant."

"That, or you made a very good impression on the man," David said.

Frowning, Blaine shook his head. "It can't have been a good first impression, really, seeing as during that first meeting I presented them with a car that hadn't been looked at for years."

"_Was_ it a date, by the way?" David asked interestedly. He eyed Blaine closely, searching for any signs that could indicate that yes, it had been a date. Again, Blaine tried his best to keep his face as blank as possible.

"I don't think it was," he replied carefully. After all, it _technically _hadn't been called that, even though it actually had been; and besides, if he said it had not been a date, his friends would know they'd talked about it and want to know how he'd found out. "We're just friends, guys."

His friends exchanged looks. "Maybe we should talk to this Kurt," Jeff proposed, getting a few murmurs of approval. "Tell him to be clear about his feelings and intentions."

"No!" Blaine exclaimed. Kurt would never forgive him if his friends pulled a stunt like that. "That won't be necessary. I'm fine with being just friends with him; it definitely beats not knowing him at all, I know that for sure."

"But what if you both wanted it to be a date?" Jeff asked, pouting a bit. "Wouldn't you want to know that?"

Oh yes, Blaine was very glad that he'd found out about that. "What does it matter anyway?" he asked. "There's a competition coming up, so there would be nothing we could do about it. Perhaps I'll tell him after Sectionals."

Wes seemed to agree with this plan, but Jeff looked kind of annoyed. Before he (or anyone else) had the chance to continue talking about this subject, though, Wes used Blaine's words to start speaking about the competition, and what they still needed to do during rehearsals. Blaine didn't talk to Kurt much about their respective Glee clubs, but he had a distinct feeling that New Directions didn't even know yet what they were going to sing.

* * *

**A/N**: So... what do you think? :) Let me know, please review! :D


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**: This chapter was done some time ago, but I'm only uploading it now because I'm kind of busy at the moment and that will be the case for the next few weeks as well. I figured it'd be better to wait a bit longer before this chapter so there might be less time in between this chapter and the next, which I haven't started yet. So... sorry for the wait, both for this and in advance ;)

Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter, and please leave a review at the bottom! :)

* * *

After spending the remainder of his Saturday night doing homework and exchanging the occasional text with Kurt, Blaine was looking forward to a fairly quiet Sunday – yes, he still had some homework he needed to finish, but that wasn't enough to keep him busy all day long. However, as soon as he was done, his phone rang.

Kurt.

Since they'd seen each other less than 24 hours ago, Blaine was slightly surprised by the call. Then again, perhaps this was what people who were dating (even if they were keeping it a secret from everyone else) did. And Blaine couldn't say he was entirely opposed to hearing Kurt's voice again – quite the opposite, really.

He didn't manage to get one word out before Kurt started talking. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Blaine listened to his boyfriend (_boyfriend!_) ramble about how he'd been an awful friend to the girl who was supposed to be his best friend at McKinley (Blaine suddenly remembered the phone call Kurt had gotten while he'd been fixing Blaine's car weeks ago), so he'd be taking her out for dinner later that day, and would Blaine like to join them?

"She doesn't know we're together," Kurt assured him, "but she does know we're close, and she wants to meet the person I've been blowing her off for so often lately." He truly sounded sorry and, despite the circumstances, Blaine smiled.

"Are you sure about that? Wouldn't she prefer to just have a night out with you, without me there? Especially if you're trying to make up for the fact that you've been blowing her off to hang out with me instead. I can imagine she might be holding quite a grudge towards me by now."

"She was actually the one who suggested asking you to come along," Kurt said, sounding a little doubtful now. "I suspect she'll try to grill you about the nature of our relationship, or what exactly your intentions with me are, or something like that – just like the rest of the group will do when they meet you, mind you."

"The Warblers are the same way," Blaine replied, relieved that, from the sound of things, Kurt could not get too angry at him if Blaine's friends would try to defend his honour or whatever they liked to call it, if Kurt's own friends were planning an interrogation as well. "Yeah, sure, I'll come. It sounds like fun."

Kurt then explained that dinner would be fairly early, seeing as they did have school the next day, and now Blaine would _have_ to drive back to Westerville afterwards. Blaine felt grateful for that, and he promised Kurt he'd be at Breadstix – which seemed to be Lima's fanciest (and only) restaurant – on time. That left him with a couple of hours less to spend with his friends, so he figured he'd best make the most of it.

As he'd sort of expected, this meant hanging out in Wes' room with the lot of them, playing all sorts of video games – just like they usually did during the weekend when they were out of homework to do or just needed a break. Blaine briefly wondered what Kurt would think if he knew – though he was bound to find out sooner or later – about the Daltonites' favourite way to waste time. He couldn't dwell on the thought for too long, as someone would probably realise something if he kept this up.

Soon, however, Blaine noticed that he should go back to his own room to get dressed for the night – he didn't think Kurt would approve if he showed up in his uniform, which he'd put on that morning because he didn't feel like going through his casual stuff. When he slowly made to get up, though, Wes frowned at him.

"Where are you going, Blaine? It's nowhere near dinner time, right?"

Jeff checked his watch. "No, it's not. Is something wrong?"

Blaine shuffled on his feet. "Nothing's wrong. It's just… Kurt asked me to hang out."

"Again?" David did not look impressed. "You're spending all your time with him nowadays, are you sure you're not dating?"

Hoping that he wasn't blushing too much, Blaine shook his head, trying to be convincing. "No, we're not dating. Um… his best friend requested to meet me."

"Oh?" Jeff asked, suddenly very interested. "So can we request to meet Kurt, too?"

"I've already told you, you'll all meet him at Sectionals," Blaine reminded him. "I'm not meeting all his friends, just one."

"So bring along one of us!" Jeff exclaimed, bouncing up and down on the bed. "It'll be fun!"

"I don't want to scare them off," Blaine replied, inching towards the door.

"Who's his best friend?" Jeff was on a roll now, and Blaine was somewhat glad Nick wouldn't be returning until later that night.

"A girl called Mercedes," Blaine responded, figuring that they wouldn't be able to do much with that information. "I don't know much about her, though. Perhaps after tonight."

Now, Jeff's eyes were positively gleaming. "You should really bring one of us along! We could have a double date!"

"Let's not do that," Blaine said carefully. "Maybe some other time, alright?"

Jeff obviously did not agree with this, and neither did the other boys. In the end, they kept Blaine long enough for him to have to hurry to leave in time, without having time to even change his clothes. He just hoped that Kurt wouldn't be too harsh on him for not changing before coming to the restaurant – or about the fact that his hair was, in fact, plastered down on his head again.

As he walked downstairs, towards the parking lot, Wes stalked along, giving him some last minute tips on how to avoid and evade questioning about the Warblers' Sectionals performance. Blaine let him talk, figuring that that was easier than trying to tell Wes that set lists would not be why the two McKinley students had asked for him to join them tonight.

When he arrived at Breadstix, Blaine was exactly on time. He didn't see Kurt's car yet, but then again, maybe his friend had driven them here. He walked inside and indeed, his eyes instantly found Kurt, who was sitting across from a girl Blaine suspected was Mercedes. Naturally, Kurt was dressed to the nines, and Blaine squirmed inwardly about the fact that he had not been able to change earlier. He'd have been much too late if he had, though, since he hadn't thought about what to wear earlier that day. He should really work on that.

"Hey," he greeted Kurt as he reached the table, smiling slightly at his boyfriend. As Kurt smiled back at him, Blaine turned to the friend. "Hi, I'm Blaine."

The girl stared at him incredulously for a moment before taking his outstretched hand. "Hey, Blaine. I'm Mercedes. It's nice to meet you."

She sent Kurt a look Blaine couldn't quite decipher, but Kurt ushered him into the booth before he could ask. There was an awkward silence for a moment, and Blaine felt like he was interrupting something – which he probably was. As he shifted in his seat slightly, Kurt squeezed his hand briefly before letting go as quickly as he'd latched on, so Mercedes wouldn't notice.

"So, Blaine," the girl began, eyeing him critically, and Blaine knew what was coming. "I have to ask, are you Dalton boys not allowed to ever take off that uniform? Or don't you… own any other clothes?"

Kurt shot her a look, but Blaine just smiled apologetically, kind of amused about her horrified tone. "Sorry about that. We're allowed to wear casual clothes outside of school hours, but not many boys do so. It's easier to wear the uniform, and many boys don't have much other clothing to work with. You're right, though; I was planning on changing before coming here, but my friends weren't intent on letting me go so easily, so in the end, I had to hurry to be here in time even without changing beforehand."

"Hasn't Kurt ever been late because he had a fashion emergency?" the girl asked, ignoring her friend's glare like a pro. When Blaine didn't immediately reply (as he couldn't recall such an event ever having taken place), she added, "He normally has a lot of those. Neither of us would've blamed you if you'd been a bit later because you had to get out of that uniform."

"She's right," Kurt agreed, "but there's nothing that can be done about it now, so let's just enjoy the evening, alright?"

Mercedes looked between the two boys disbelievingly. "Okay," she started, glancing at Blaine, "what have you done to my friend?" Turning to Kurt, she continued, "The Kurt Hummel _I_ know wouldn't have stopped bothering him about the uniform the entire night, and now you're just _dropping_ the subject? Like _that_?"

Kurt made a non-committal noise before sighing. "Look, Mercedes – we can't tell him to drive all the way back to Dalton and then back here just because he's in his uniform, right? I'm sure he got the message and I'm sure it won't happen again. Right, Blaine?"

Dutifully, Blaine shook his head. "I'll keep it in mind," he promised. "The next time you see me, Mercedes – provided you don't come to Dalton and not counting Sectionals – I'll be out of uniform."

"We do need to go shopping for some new clothes," Kurt mentioned. "From what I've seen and heard, you don't own that much."

Again, Mercedes glanced at the two of them, now with a thoughtful expression on her face. Blaine hoped she wouldn't figure them out; after all, from what Kurt had told him, he regularly took his friends (mostly female, but still) on shopping trips all the time when he didn't approve of their wardrobe.

Kurt seemed to realise this too, as he quickly started talking about something that had happened in his English class a few weeks before.

o-o-o-o-o

By the time the three of them got their food, Blaine could see why Kurt and Mercedes were such good friends; they were almost hilariously alike and different at the same time, which, in Blaine's eyes, was quite a feat. He was enjoying his evening, though he couldn't help but think that he and Kurt were sometimes excluding Mercedes from the conversation; it soon became obvious, though, that whenever he said something about this, Blaine himself would not understand the next part of the conversation, as Mercedes would start talking about school or their friends or a mutual experience next. Only when they started discussing music (which, Blaine knew, they had tried to avoid for the first part of the night since that topic came dangerously close to that of Glee clubs and competitions), there was a real three-way conversation.

As they discussed the pro's and cons of various music genres, someone suddenly walked up to them. "Blaine! What a surprise to see you here!"

Somewhat annoyed, Blaine looked up; Mercedes and Kurt did the same. "Nick?" Blaine exclaimed disbelievingly. "What – why are you here?"

"We're on a date," his friend replied, gesturing to Amanda, his girlfriend, who was standing next to him.

"I didn't know either of you lived so close to Lima," Blaine said, frowning.

"We don't," Amanda responded, shrugging, as she threw Nick an annoyed look. "For some reason, though, he insisted we come here. So here we are."

"Did Jeff call you?" Blaine asked suspiciously. He wouldn't put it past his friends to send Nick after him. After all, he had a better excuse to be in a restaurant than most of their other friends did.

"No, he didn't," Nick defended himself.

"Was it Wes?" Blaine asked. "Or David?"

Nick groaned silently, and Blaine cast a quick glance to Mercedes and Kurt – Mercedes was watching the exchange a little confusedly, while Kurt was looking on with more interest. "It was Wes," Nick confessed. Looking at Blaine's companions instead, he grinned – Kurt especially was met by a slightly frightening smile. "You must be the famous Kurt," Nick said, looking Kurt up and down. "Awesome, I feel like I know you already with all the time Blaine spends talking about you."

Mercedes snorted and, after stealing a glance at Kurt, turned to Nick. "He does that too?" she asked. Gesturing towards her best friend, she added, "It's so hard to get Kurt to shut up about Blaine sometimes. I think I can write Blaine's biography by now."

Blaine and Kurt, both reddening at an alarming speed, looked at each other, horrified. Yes, they did know how the other felt about them, but that didn't make this situation any less embarrassing. This was exactly what Blaine had feared would happen when the two Glee clubs would meet, and he didn't like it at all.

"Nick," he interrupted his friend and Mercedes, "why did Wes send you here?" He had a vague idea of what Wes' reason was, but he wanted to hear it from Nick.

Nick shrugged. "He and the other guys were kind of offended by the fact that one of Kurt's friends got to meet you, but none of us had met him so far. It's almost like you're ashamed of us." He pouted for a moment before continuing. "Since they had no reason to drive two hours to follow you here, other than wanting to meet Kurt, they asked me to do that and give them a report as soon as I'm back at Dalton."

At that, Kurt asked Nick, somewhat uncomfortably, what would be in that report. Blaine glared at Nick for making his boyfriend (though Nick (hopefully) didn't know _that_ bit) uneasy, and Mercedes and Amanda exchanged exasperated looks.

When Nick finally left, dragged to a free table by his girlfriend, Kurt looked at Blaine, wide-eyed. "Is he really going to tell the rest of your friends about me?" he asked.

Blaine nodded apologetically. "Sorry," he said. "I doubt he'll have anything bad to say, though," he tried to appease Kurt, though he wasn't sure if it worked. "They're all incredibly curious about you."

"The same goes for our friends, about you," Mercedes told him, clearly trying to hold back a smile.

"You're going to give them a full report as well?" Blaine asked, and Kurt sent her a disapproving look.

"If anyone asks, I won't hesitate to answer," she responded semi-diplomatically.

o-o-o-o-o

The next morning at breakfast, Blaine had to suffer through his friends asking about Breadstix, Kurt and Mercedes, and also through Nick expressively talking about what he'd witnessed and what he thought of Kurt. Thankfully, Nick was mostly positive about the boy (the only real negative thing being that Kurt had 'obviously' not noticed yet what a cute pair he and Blaine would make), even going as far as to tell the other Warblers about how beautiful he was, for a boy – not that Nick would know because he wasn't gay, or so he said.

All in all, Blaine was glad that the first contact between one of his friends and Kurt had gone fairly well. Plus, he himself and Mercedes seemed to get along just fine, too. Maybe they _would_ be okay.

Later, as he walked to his first class, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Looking around swiftly, he took the device out and glanced at the screen. Kurt, again – but a message this time.

_He proposed! My dad and Carole are getting married next weekend!_

* * *

**A/N**: Soooo... :) What do you think? Let me know, please review! :D


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**: I'm sorry for the wait - but, on the other hand, I think the wait for some other chapters was longer, wasn't it? (Also: sorry about the false update alert thing just now if you got it; I accidentally uploaded chapter 7 another time as chapter 9 :S) It was supposed to be longer, and I'd planned on writing about more stuff, but that'll be next chapter, I suppose. Most of what happens in this chapter was never supposed to happen anyway (as always), so... Oh, and a merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it :)

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy the chapter, and please leave a review at the bottom!

* * *

When Blaine entered Warblers rehearsal later that day, he came to a sudden halt as he gaped at the giant screen that was somehow manoeuvred to stand in front of the council table. About half the Warblers were sitting around it, watching the screen with great interest as _Don't stop believing_ by Journey sounded through the room.

Only it wasn't Journey performing the song; it rather looked like some sort of competition. A show choir competition, to be more precise.

Moving closer to the screen, Blaine realised with a start what his friends were watching. This must be New Directions' last year's Regionals performance. He had to admit, they were good. Not that he'd expected anything less, of course.

"Spying on the competition, guys, really?" Blaine glanced around as Flint walked in, rolling his eyes at the others.

Blaine watched as Wes glanced at the screen, frowning slightly, before turning back to Flint. "We didn't mean to."

"You didn't _mean_ to spy on the competition?" Flint asked, sounding astonished.

"So… you're saying that this screen was already here and the performance was already playing and you accidentally sat down and watched?" Blaine asked, finding the whole situation to be both odd and funny, in a way.

"No, we did all that ourselves," Nick replied. "We just… didn't realise that we were spying on the competition." Still, he looked at screen with the same, if not bigger, interest as before.

Jeff eventually cracked under the combined pressure of Flint and Blaine. "We just _really_ wanted to see Kurt."

Thad nodded earnestly. "And we figured it would be too creepy to collectively stalk him on Facebook, so we asked Nick to point him out in a performance."

"It's not really out fault that the only New Directions videos on Youtube are the ones from last year's competitions," David muttered.

"We weren't even paying any attention to what all the other people in his club were doing," Jeff said unashamedly, grinning proudly.

Blaine, however, didn't really know how to react to that. Apparently, his friends had all taken to somewhat obsessively stalking his boyfriend – not that they knew Kurt was his boyfriend – on the internet. He hoped that New Directions weren't returning the favour.

"For some reason, you sounded saner when you were just spying on the competition," Flint decided, finally sitting down on a couch. Blaine couldn't agree more.

Wes cleared his throat. "Let's put the screen away now, alright? We've got a meeting to hold, after all."

Before any of the younger Warblers came in, the room was put back in its normal state. There was no trace of anyone having spied (accidentally or not) on the competition. Blaine would need to question Wes about the matter later, though – after all, hadn't he and David (or whoever it had been) already seen Kurt before? He would never understand his friends.

During rehearsal, they ran through _Hey, Soul Sister_ at least a dozen times before Wes was convinced that they were actually on schedule and ready to win Sectionals – even though that wasn't in another two weeks.

When Blaine walked back to his dorm after rehearsal, Nick called after him, "Hey, Blaine, wait up!"

"Hey, Nick," Blaine said as Nick caught up with him. "Is anything the matter?"

Nick shook his head. "Not really. Just wanted to make sure there are no hard feelings about me crashing your date yesterday."

"It wasn't a date, Nick," Blaine reminded him. "And if it hadn't been you, it probably would've been someone else, so no, no hard feelings."

Nick grinned at him. "You know," he started pensively, "the next time you're going to hang out with Kurt and a friend, you should totally tell one of the guys that are still single to tag along. James, for instance. He could… distract Kurt's friend, and you'd have him all to yourself."

"That's ridiculous," Blaine told him, though telling himself to remember that idea for a later time. Who knew when it could come in handy. "Besides, Kurt and I go for coffee all the time, so that's plenty of alone time, right?"

A snort came from Blaine's other side, and it seemed that Jeff had caught up with them as well. "Obviously, it's not _enough_ alone time, or else you and Kurt would be dating by now."

This was probably the millionth time since Blaine had gotten back at Dalton on Saturday that one of his friends mentioned him dating Kurt (and there had also been another million times they'd mentioned it before then), and Blaine had to act all aloof and pretend nothing was going on. To make it all even worse, he felt guiltier each time it was mentioned, and he was starting to think that his friends actually _knew_ that he and Kurt weren't just friends but were waiting for him to crack and just tell them.

Which was right about… now. He knew he should probably discuss this with Kurt first, but he couldn't keep it in any longer.

"Blaine?" Nick poked his shoulder. "Are you still alive down there?"

Blaine rolled his eyes. "You're only, what, half an inch taller than me?"

"What happened? You completely zoned out," Jeff commented.

"Come on," Blaine said, stalking off towards his room, knowing without looking back (or using his ears – Nick and Jeff were pretty loud) that they'd follow. After all, they were very curious by nature.

Once they were in Blaine's dorm, Blaine closed the door and turned towards his two friends, who just stared back at him, and then at each other, non-understandingly.

"Blaine?" Nick asked again. "What's this all about?"

"You can't tell anyone else about this," Blaine told them urgently. "You _can't_."

"About what?" Jeff asked, his usual carefree demeanour having disappeared almost entirely.

"We're dating," Blaine blurted out. "Kurt and I – well, sort of. We've only been… together for a few days, after all."

"Oh my God, really?" Nick asked enthusiastically, while Jeff wore such a big grin Blaine was worried that his face might split in half. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Seriously, Nick and Jeff were worse than pre-teen girls sometimes.

"Because we didn't want anyone to find out just yet," Blaine replied. "I haven't met most of Kurt's friends yet, but from what Kurt's told me, they won't take too kindly to him dating a member of another show choir so shortly before a competition. And judging from Wes' reaction when I told all of you about that… I think he'd agree with them. Besides, like I said, we just got together. Neither of us has got any clue whatsoever about what to do and we just… want to take it slow. And that includes the telling other people part." He frowned for a moment. "I personally doubt my parents will like it very much, come to think of it."

Both his friends were grinning like Christmas had come early now. "So we're the first people you've told?" Jeff asked excitedly.

"Yes, you are, and that's also why you should keep it quiet for a little while longer. We'll tell everyone after Sectionals – maybe even at Sectionals, the details are still a little vague. We're keeping it under wraps for now."

"We're honoured," Jeff told him sincerely while he and Nick saluted. "You can count on us, Blaine."

"And we're really happy for you," Nick added. "I take back everything I said about you two, and especially Kurt, being so oblivious."

Jeff nodded. "So, now that we're done being sappy, I'm in desperate need of some action-packed video-gaming. Let's go."

o-o-o-o-o

That evening, Kurt called again, something which Blaine was almost oddly happy about. He'd come to find he really liked hearing his boyfriend's voice every day. Something seemed to be wrong, though, but Blaine couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Kurt sounded off, somehow.

Filing that away for later, he decided to talk about something else first. "Hey, Kurt," he said cautiously, not quite knowing how to break the news to his boyfriend. He hoped that Kurt wouldn't get too mad at him. When Kurt hummed in response, he decided to just spit it out. "I told the guys. About us. Nick and Jeff – they know."

"They know?" Luckily, Kurt didn't exactly sound angry. Just... shocked.

"I know, and I'm sorry, Kurt." A little bit of grovelling wouldn't hurt, though, Blaine decided. "They just kept going on about what a shame it was we weren't dating and how silly we were being… I just felt so guilty."

"Okay," Kurt said quietly. "Okay, so… two of your friends know. And you're absolutely sure that they won't tell anyone else?"

Blaine hesitated for a moment. Jeff and Nick had promised not to tell anyone, but to be honest, he knew that the two of them often couldn't contain certain things if they were really happy about something. Apparently, Kurt had sensed his hesitance as well.

"It's not that I don't want anyone to know," he said. "I just… don't think that it'd be a good thing to have everyone know right now." Then, he added, "I understand the guilty feeling, though. Mercedes talked about you all day. She thinks that we ignored her a little too much last night. If I tell her, though… besides the fact that I'll probably never hear the end of it, it'll be only a matter of hours before the entire group knows. I love them, insanity and all, but I don't want to know what they'd do if they found out about us now."

"I'm pretty sure Nick and Jeff won't tell your friends, so you don't have to worry about that," Blaine tried to comfort him. "I wish I could say they'll keep their mouths shut, but sometimes, they don't even realise they've said something they shouldn't have said until after the damage is done. It'll all be fine, though, I'm sure of it."

"Let's hope so," Kurt muttered, and again, Blaine detected… something in his voice, but he couldn't be too sure what it was.

Deciding to let it slide for now, he asked, "Did Mercedes say anything else about last night, or does she just think I'm this guy who's trying to steal her best friend away from her?"

Kurt laughed at that for a second before replying. "She doesn't think that. She told me you're a very well-mannered guy, with no sense of fashion whatsoever, and who seems to make me happy even though you're too blind to see how fabulous I am."

"Did she talk to the others, by any chance?" Blaine asked curiously. "I'm pretty sure Nick was talking for hours, even though he'd met you for only about five minutes or so."

"She didn't, actually," Kurt responded. "Not that I know of, at least. Most of our friends spend all their time with their significant others and even if they're not, I doubt they're very interested in hearing about my life. Unless, of course, it involves me dating a member of a competing show choir."

Some time later, when Blaine had finished telling Kurt about his friends' rather… interesting attempt at learning more about him, there was only silence. "Kurt?" he asked worriedly. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Kurt replied, breathing heavily for some reason. "Really, Blaine. It's – fine."

"Kurt," Blaine repeated. "Something's obviously bothering you. You know you can tell me, right?" When Kurt didn't respond, Blaine asked, almost afraid of the answer, "Does it have to do with the bullying?"

It took a moment, but eventually, Kurt replied, "Yes. It does. It's nothing I can't handle, though. Karofsky's… been getting worse, lately, but for some reason, the other guys – Sam, Mike… Artie, even though he's in a wheelchair, and Puck, although he can't do much or he'll go straight back to juvie, they're all helping out a little. They're sort of sticking up for me now, sometimes, even though it's not really their problem."

And while Blaine was more than grateful that Kurt's friends finally seemed to acknowledge the fact that the bullying Kurt had to deal with was getting out of hand, he frowned nevertheless. Deciding to file Kurt's final remark away for later discussion, he asked, "What about Finn?" Kurt hadn't mentioned his soon-to-be-stepbrother, after all. "Is he doing something too?"

"Finn's… kind of worried about his reputation," Kurt muttered. "It's fine. He already has to deal with the fact that our parents are getting married, so…"

"So he should be the first person to stand up for you," Blaine said. He would do so himself, but the fact that they went to different schools made it a little difficult.

"Blaine," Kurt admonished him. "It doesn't matter."

"We'll talk about this later," Blaine said. "How's the wedding planning going?"

That appeared to be a good question, as Kurt then proceeded to tell him all about the upcoming wedding. Blaine honestly didn't know why the bride- and groom-to-be had opted to get married so quickly (in only a few days!), but for Kurt, is seemed to be no problem.

"You're coming, right?" Kurt asked at some point.

"I am?" Blaine asked, surprised. "I'm invited to your parents' wedding? Isn't that a little… too soon? They don't even know we're together."

"You're still a good friend," Kurt reminded him. "Plus, my dad likes you. And even if you weren't invited, I'd just take you as my… non-date, or something."

"To keep up appearances." Blaine grinned. "Sure, I'd love to come."

Again, Kurt was silent, but it was a different silence this time. "Is it a bad thing that I miss you already?" he asked, and Blaine could almost hear the slightly abashed smile.

"I miss you too," Blaine reassured him. "I suppose that's all part of the deal, right?" Kurt seemed to agree with that. "Hey, you know what?" he suddenly asked. "Wes scheduled an all-afternoon Warblers practice tomorrow, even though we hardly need it seeing as he decided today that we're perfectly on schedule. I could come to McKinley to see you, perhaps?"

"You can't just bail on them," Kurt exclaimed, sounding shocked.

Blaine shrugged. "It'll be fine. I'll explain everything to Wes later. Besides, they'll probably just going to watch a movie if I'm not there. Or run through the back-up singing. The council knows I'm practising all the time, so it shouldn't be much of a problem."

"You really don't need to do that," Kurt replied quickly, but Blaine shook his head, remembering too late that Kurt couldn't see him.

"But what if I want to?"

* * *

**A/N**: So... yeah, that'll be next chapter. Let me know what you thought of this, please review! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**: So... chapter 10! And it's been hell to write this one, which you might've guessed if you follow me on Tumblr. I wrote the chapter on Sunday, but when proofreading it tonight, I decided to change it up anyway. For anyone who wants to know what happened, keep reading; for anyone who doesn't and didn't immediately skip to the story in the first place - go right ahead.  
I'd somehow gotten the plan in my head that Karofsky _would_ be kissing Kurt after all, but Blaine would witness it and yay! everything's wonderful. However, Sue somehow came in too, and it all got immensely complicated - in the end, Burt was about to file a lawsuit and Kurt felt like Karofsky's friends were probably going to pick on him even more now. Which would probably happen, I think. Even if Karofsky had been sent to juvie/jail, Kurt would still get harrassed, and even more so than before. I felt like the story would get so much darker if I kept the chapter the way it was, and I'm no good at dark(-ish) stories. No matter what I came up with, it wouldn't do completely, as Kurt would still be rather unsafe. So I had Blaine come in a few seconds earlier, cut off around 3/4 of the chapter and wrote something else - something which isn't so much better, necessarily, but I personally think it's 'easier' to work with.

So... yeah. If you have any questions, just let me know. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please leave a review at the bottom! :)

* * *

The next day, Blaine avoided his friends as well as possible. If he was really going to sneak out around noon, he couldn't let too many people see him now. Naturally, though, Nick and Jeff waved happily at him when he snuck off to his dorm during study hall, but he pretended not to see them. That would only lead to questions and delays. After quickly changing out of his uniform and into something he hoped was fashionable enough for Kurt (and Mercedes, in case they ran into her), he grabbed his car keys and his bag and left the building as inconspicuously as possible.

In an attempt to appease Wes (whose voice seemed to have invaded Blaine's mind), he sang _Hey, soul sister_ about a dozen times before he'd had enough and changed to the other song they were supposed to sing at Sectionals, but hadn't really practised during the past week or so. For a moment, Blaine stilled. What if this extra meeting was to start on their other song? Seeing as he was almost in Lima already, Blaine saw no point in turning around. The rest of the Warblers could start rehearsing the harmonies already, he figured. That, and the choreography; Blaine could practise that in his spare time.

He shot Kurt a quick text when he was a few minutes away from the school, and when he arrived at McKinley's parking lot, Kurt was already loitering near the front doors. When he noticed that it was Blaine who'd arrived, he walked up to the car and reached it just as Blaine locked it.

"Hey, you," Blaine greeted him happily. He was certain his grin had taken over his face, and it was all because of Kurt.

"Hey," Kurt said in return, glancing around swiftly before giving Blaine a quick hug. "You really didn't need to do this."

"Well, like I said… I wanted to," Blaine retorted playfully. "If it bothers you so much, you can just come to Dalton again next time, alright?"

"I think I could live with that," Kurt conceded. With a slight smirk, he added, "I approve of the outfit, by the way. I'm glad you decided to wear something different from your uniform this time." As Blaine smiled in thanks, Kurt asked, "So… what did you have in mind? Did you want to go somewhere, or…?"

"Is there a restaurant around here where we could get some lunch?" Blaine asked. "I haven't eaten yet, and…"

Kurt smiled. "As far as I'm aware, Breadstix is the only restaurant near here that has edible food. We can always go to the Lima Bean, maybe they've got sandwiches? I normally don't go there at this hour of the day, so I'm not sure."

Blaine nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds like a plan. Shall we go?"

Kurt's attention was momentarily elsewhere. "Can we stop by my locker really quickly? I think I accidentally put my phone in there in my haste to get outside." Blaine thought the sheepish look Kurt was currently sporting was the most adorable thing he'd ever seen, so he was quick to agree. Not that he wouldn't have agreed otherwise, of course.

As they walked through the hallways, Blaine looked around wearily. There was a feeling he couldn't shake, and this school didn't seem very safe and friendly indeed. He didn't know how Kurt did it; he himself would've tried to find a way out of here a very long time ago.

And to think that there weren't even a lot of people around at this moment. Blaine suspected that they must either be in the cafeteria or in class, but it did help him feel a little safer.

He shouldn't have felt at ease so quickly.

Out of nowhere, he was slammed into the locker next to Kurt's. Glancing up dazedly, he could just make out Kurt kneeling down next to him to see if he was alright, before he was also pushed further down.

"Hey!" Kurt shouted at the culprit, a big guy in a letterman jacket who was walking away like he hadn't just physically assaulted two people. Blaine couldn't be sure, but this might just be Karofsky, Kurt's biggest bully. Kurt seemed to have had enough of being pushed around, though, if his standing up and chasing after the boy was anything to go by.

Blaine hastily got up as well, ignoring his throbbing head and the fact that his shoulder and back would be entirely bruised by tomorrow. He supposed it was a lucky thing that he usually slept on his stomach, but that was something he'd think about later. Now, he had to make sure that this Neanderthal wasn't hurting Kurt anymore than he'd already done. So, as fast as he could, Blaine sprinted after Kurt until he couldn't see him anymore.

Then, an angry voice drifted towards him – Kurt. He took off again, hoping that he wouldn't be too late. He would never forgive himself if he would. He didn't even notice the tall blond woman he almost bumped into – not even when he hurried into what appeared to be the locker rooms and she was almost directly behind him.

"Stop it!" Blaine cried out, not knowing where his sudden bravery came from. As both Kurt and his bully were distracted for a moment, Blaine put himself firmly in between the two, intent on protecting Kurt from this Neanderthal.

Said Neanderthal, however, just scowled. "This your boyfriend, Kurt?" he scoffed, and he made to push Blaine into the lockers.

"Stop right there, Karofsky," someone said from the doorway, and all three boys whirled around to see the tall blond woman Blaine knew to be Sue Sylvester. "To my office, right now. Porcelain, Hobbit – you're coming as well."

Protesting heavily, claiming that Kurt had been peeking at his junk in the locker room, Karofsky was directed to wherever Ms Sylvester's office was. Still a little shocked at what had just gone down, Blaine turned towards Kurt. "Are you okay?" he asked gingerly, placing a careful hand at the other boy's shoulder.

Kurt nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I guess. Nothing he hasn't done before, but thanks for stepping in."

Blaine smiled. "Well, of course. What kind of a lousy boyfriend would I be if I didn't stick up for you?"

"We should – we should probably go to the principal's office, too," Kurt said after a few seconds. At Blaine's confused look, he added, "Didn't I tell you about how coach Sylvester got Figgins fired and took his place? Well, she did. She's the principal now."

"Lead the way, then," Blaine replied, and as they walked, he said, "I'm sorry, by the way. If I hadn't decided to come over today, you wouldn't have been in the hallway when Karofsky walked by."

"He pushes me into lockers every time I see him," Kurt said, and that was new. Blaine had known that the bullying had taken a turn for the worse, but locker slams every chance those bullies got? That was ridiculously extreme. "I guess I just… cracked, now, which could've happened any day now. I suppose I was lucky you were there and followed me, actually."

"There are scholarships available, you know," Blaine blurted out. "For Dalton, I mean. I know your dad can't… afford to send you there, but you could always apply for a scholarship. And there are probably also special… plans, or something, for extreme situations like yours. You don't have to go through all this abuse, Kurt."

"As wonderful as that sounds, Blaine, I don't think I could leave my dad, and my friends. They need me." Still, Kurt sounded stricken.

"I never said you had to decide right now," Blaine reminded him. "Just – when it gets to be too much, know that you have other options besides being bullied. And you don't really have to leave them – you don't _have_ to board at Dalton, you can commute, too."

"Why do you have to make it sound so perfect?" Kurt muttered, smiling fondly. "Well, anyway, we're here," he added before Blaine could reply. "Did I ever warn you about coach Sylvester before?" Blaine nodded. "Good. At least you have some sort of idea what to expect." He frowned. "Not that that helps, but at least you're a little bit prepared."

Before either boy could knock, a voice came from inside. "Don't just stand there, I can hear you breathing from miles away."

Hastily, Blaine pushed the door open, and he and Kurt entered the room. Karofsky was sitting in one of the chairs, glaring at them, and Blaine inched a little closer to Kurt.

"Sit," Ms Sylvester ordered them, and they instantly sat down on a small couch. "Now, Gelhead, I have no idea who you are or what you are doing here, and honestly, I couldn't care less about it either. You look like Schuester's long lost son even more than that smarmy Carmel kid from last year did. I would tell you to get out and wait outside, or drag you to court for trespassing, but I have a feeling you would start singing about it and I really can't stand that."

Blaine blinked owlishly at her. Was this woman serious? He felt Kurt squeezing his hand swiftly before letting go again – just in time for Ms Sylvester to continue speaking.

"Now, which one of you is going to tell me what I just saw in the locker room?" she asked impatiently, and apparently, Karofsky had been waiting for this chance ever since he'd got caught.

"Those two fairies were trying to peek at my junk," he spat, glaring at Kurt and Blaine with an ever-intensifying glare. "I was just putting them in their place."

"Porcelain?" Ms Sylvester said expectantly. Blaine didn't know the woman very well, but he definitely didn't think that she believed what Karofsky was saying.

"He shoved us into a locker," Kurt said softly, "like he always does. I'd had enough, so I ran after him when he walked off. And I _definitely_ would never even _think_ about peeking at his junk," he added with an obvious shiver. "I'm not that desperate."

Blaine pursed his lips to prevent himself from laughing. Somehow, he didn't think that would go over well in present company.

"Eyebrows, what do you have to say about all this?" Surprised, Blaine looked up. He hadn't thought he'd get a chance to speak.

"I wanted to make sure he wouldn't hurt Kurt any further," he said carefully. "When I came into the locker room, it looked like he was about to punch Kurt."

"Is that true, Porcelain?" she asked, and Kurt nodded quickly.

"You don't believe them, do you?" Karofsky exclaimed. "Those fags are – "

"Hold it right there, Karofsky," Ms Sylvester interrupted him. "I know what I saw, and what I saw was not two gay boys sneaking up on you. From what I hear, the opposite is true. Besides, I had security cameras installed all around the school in order to make sure nobody would ever get away with spying on the Cheerios. If you're so sure about your story, why don't we have a closer look at what's been caught on tape?"

It was almost – almost – comical how swiftly Karofsky's face went from red to white. Kurt seemed surprised as well by the fact that there were cameras in the school.

"So, Karofsky," Ms Sylvester said. "Don't think I won't hesitate to search for evidence and punish you the next time Porcelain comes in and tells me you or any of your friends tried something, so spread the word, and stay away from him next time."

Blaine was actually a little disappointed, he found. He'd somehow expected McKinley's new principal to do something about the bullying situation Kurt was facing. It seemed like she was hardly any different from most high school teachers in Ohio, though.

When Ms Sylvester started speaking again, Karofsky was already gone, but Blaine wasn't feeling much safer. "Now, Porcelain," she said, "this kid lays a finger on you, you come straight to me, and I'll do what I can for you." Leaning back in her chair, she continued. "The world's a cruel place. People are mean. But this is my school now, and I will not tolerate students physically and emotionally abusing one another for something they can't do anything about. Now get out, I feel like I'm slowly suffocating here from all the chemicals in both your hairdos."

Both boys got up immediately, and while Kurt nodded at her in thanks, Blaine moved to the door. Once outside, Kurt took a deep breath before wiping his face clean of any fear or anger. "Let's go have some lunch," he announced faux-happily.

As soon as they turned around the corner, though, they, once again, came face to face with Karofsky, who did not look happy at all. "If either of you tries to tell on me and my buddies ever again, I will kill you both," he snarled, slamming his fist into the nearest locker for good measure, and Blaine wondered how Ms Sylvester couldn't hear that – they weren't that far away from her office, after all.

With one more threatening look, Karofsky disappeared again, and Blaine felt Kurt trembling next to him. "We should… tell someone," he uttered. "Kurt, we can't let him get away with this."

"Didn't you hear him, Blaine?" Kurt asked, voice barely louder than a whisper. "He'll kill us if we do. And if he doesn't, his friends will." He sank down against the lockers, Blaine sitting down next to him. "Promise me you won't tell anyone," Kurt muttered. "Blaine, you have to – to promise me."

"I promise," Blaine replied, slightly shaken by what had just taken place, and by this side of Kurt he'd never seen before. "But Kurt – it's not safe for you here, don't you – "

"Of course I know that, Blaine," Kurt shot back, sounding annoyed. "But I can't just leave. We already discussed this. I'll be fine. It's only another year and a half." Blaine didn't want to think about what could happen to Kurt here in a year and a half, but kept his mouth shut. It was obvious that Kurt didn't want to talk about this.

"Uh – Kurt, dude? Are you okay?" As Blaine glanced up, he saw a giant. Alright, maybe not a giant, but the guy in front of them came pretty close to how Blaine envisioned giants.

"I'm fine, Finn," Kurt said curtly. He stood up and dusted himself off, and Blaine took this as his own cue to do the same. "We were just heading out to grab some lunch. I'll see you later."

Before giving his (apparently) stepbrother-to-be a chance to respond, Kurt all but dragged Blaine out of the school, only stopping when they'd reached Blaine's car.

"So that was Finn?" Blaine asked as he attempted to find his car keys. "He's… tall."

Kurt hummed in agreement. "Yep, that idiot is going to be my stepbrother after this weekend."

Not really knowing what to say to that, Blaine finally located his keys and opened his car. Kurt wouldn't let him hold open his door for him, so Blaine just got in. The drive to the Lima Bean was spent in a rather awkward silence. Going over today's events in his head, he grabbed the steering wheel harder than he had to, and noticed this only as he pulled into the Lima Bean parking lot. After shutting down the car, he said, "I'm really sorry about today."

"Blaine, you didn't do anything wrong," Kurt said, grabbing his hand. "Nothing that happened today was your fault, okay? If anything, I should be the one apologising – if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even be in this mess right now."

"No, Kurt," Blaine protested. "Don't say that."

Kurt smiled sadly at him. "Let's head inside. I don't know about you, but I'm craving some coffee right now."

Once they'd ordered their coffees and, in Blaine's case, a sandwich, they sat down at their usual table, marvelling about the fact that even now, it wasn't occupied. When Kurt started talking about the latest _Vogue _issue, though, Blaine frowned.

"So we're not going to talk about this?" he asked, making sure that no one around them could hear. "We're going to pretend nothing happened?"

"Blaine," Kurt said quietly, "it happened. See, we'll just… have to make sure not to tell anyone about it, and we'll be fine."

"That guy threatened to kill us," Blaine hissed. "Telling someone would be the most logical thing to do, don't you think?"

"He'll kill us, Blaine," Kurt repeated. "If we tell anyone, it'll somehow get back to him, and we're doomed."

"If we tell someone, they could help us – maybe he'd get sent to juvie, or something," Blaine countered.

"Then his friends will finish his dirty job," Kurt said, rubbing his face. "Look, Blaine – can we discuss this some other time? I'm not really in the mood right now."

Realising well enough that Kurt would never be in the mood to talk about this – and, to be fair, neither would Blaine – Blaine reluctantly let the matter go. He didn't feel very comfortable about it, but it was Kurt's school, and if Kurt thought it best not to talk about it, not to each other, nor to anyone else, then Blaine would accept that.

* * *

**A/N**: What do you think? I hope Sue wasn't too soft on them :\ Anyway, let me know what you thought of this, please review! :)


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**: So... this chapter was a bit harder to write, for some reason. I don't really know. I realise some of what happens here may seem a little rushed, but it wasn't exactly possible/logical to put it in multiple chapters, or something. Anyway... the next chapter should contain the wedding, if everything works out the way it should. I really hope that one turns out to be a little easier to write, especially since the wedding chapter for AAP is (still) not working for me at all. Maybe if I attempt to write this one, the other will work out as well, though, who knows. Anyway, that should be about it. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter, and please don't hesitate to leave a review at the bottom :)

* * *

When Blaine arrived back at Dalton, his mind was still reeling from everything that had taken place at McKinley. On one hand, it made him all the more relieved that his parents had sent him to Dalton and not just another public school, but on the other hand, he was incredibly scared for Kurt's safety. Karofsky was every bit of mean and menacing bully Kurt had made him out to be, and then some. They had no idea how far he would go, and Blaine could understand that Kurt had no intention of ever finding that out. Still, he _would_ feel a lot better if Kurt would just tell someone, or let Blaine tell someone.

He had to find a way to get Kurt out of there. Surely Kurt's friends couldn't be so selfish as to keep him there for their own benefit, while Kurt wasn't safe at all, right? Blaine groaned softly. If Kurt wasn't so damn stubborn, this would be so much easier.

Deciding to figure out a way to convince his boyfriend to transfer to Dalton, Blaine finally got out of his car and locked it before walking inside. He wasn't really hungry, but he _could_ do with some rest. Yes, some rest sounded amazing right now.

Naturally, he had no such luck. He could've expected it, of course, seeing as he skipped Warblers rehearsal that had been scheduled for the entire afternoon. So when he walked past the rehearsal room without even fully realising it, he was grabbed by the arm not two seconds later and dragged inside.

Disoriented for a moment, Blaine looked around wildly. Not a lot of people were in the room – just the three council members, and Nick and Jeff.

Wait. That was slightly suspicious, wasn't it?

"Where were you today?" Wes had straightened his back and crossed his arms in order to look intimidating. It might've worked better if he was taller than he actually was, but Blaine took a small step back anyway.

"Why are we asking him where he was?" David asked before Blaine could respond. "We already know that. The real question is, why weren't you here?"

"I – ," Blaine started. "Wait, you already know?"

"Yes," Wes replied icily. "We do. You went to Lima to spend time with your boyfriend. Who also happens to be the competition."

Blaine's head whipped sideways, towards where Nick and Jeff were sitting. They cowered slightly under his gaze. "Why did you tell them?"

"So you're admitting it?" Thad asked, clearly not wanting to be left out.

Blaine blinked. "Well, they already told you, so…"

"They told us that you're dating this Kurt, regardless of what we or his club has to say about it. So when you didn't show up today, it wasn't difficult to realise that you were probably visiting him instead." Wes shot him a disapproving look.

"We were going to tell you eventually," Blaine said. "After Sectionals. Or at Sectionals, we haven't really discussed the details yet."

Thad shrugged. "You can still tell the New Directions members, if they don't find out earlier as well."

For a moment, Blaine stared at him, before turning to Wes and David, whose facial expressions he didn't exactly trust at the moment. "You can't tell them," he said, also turning around to face Nick and Jeff. "You can't. They'll make him break up with me and I'll probably be much too depressed to sing at Sectionals and we'll _lose_."

Wes shrugged. "Your behaviour today was unacceptable, Blaine. Maybe we'll just have someone else sing lead at Sectionals. You knew that today would be important, Blaine, and yet, you disappear all day long to spend time with your _boyfriend_, who we, as council members, do not approve of."

Blaine gaped at him. "You can't be serious, Wes! You know I'm your best bet for those songs, you're the ones who gave them to me. And what do you mean, you don't approve? As my friends, I would've expected you to be happy for me."

"We're happy you found a boyfriend," David interrupted. "But we're not so happy about who he is."

"Look, I'm sorry for skipping rehearsal," Blaine said, "but when else was I going to see him this week? Plus, it's not like he has it easy at McKinley or anything." Today's events were enough proof for that. "Oh, and from what I heard today, New Directions isn't preparing for Sectionals yet. I know," he added when both Wes and David opened their mouths to protest, "I know that that doesn't mean we can slack as well, but we're already ahead of them. And I did practise the songs in the car, if that means anything…"

"We'll let you know what we've decided to do," Wes told him, and turned on his heel. When the three council members were all gone, Blaine turned towards Jeff and Nick.

"Why did you tell them?" he asked, feeling slightly exasperated. "Didn't I ask you to keep it a secret?"

Again, the two cowered under his gaze. "We know," Jeff said. "But they thought you had some kind of deathly disease – "

"They wanted to put together a get well soon medley to perform for you," Nick added.

"And then they went to your room and you weren't there."

"They got so angry."

"They tried to call you but you didn't pick up – "

"So they wanted to kick you out of the group – "

"Which none of the others actually supported."

"But then they asked if anyone knew what you could be up to – "

"If anything had happened to you lately – "

"And you know we suck at lying – "

"Especially when Wes has his gavel at hand – "

"They must have realised we knew something because the next thing we knew, everyone else was gone and it was the three of them against the two of us!"

"Then they threatened to kick _us_ off if we didn't tell them where you were – "

"Which we obviously didn't know – "

"But then Nick – "

"You mean you – "

"No, you – "

"Guys!" Blaine interrupted them. "What happened next?"

Nick sighed. "Well, one of us – Jeff – _accidentally_ mentioned that Kurt was your boyfriend now and you know the rest."

Jeff crossed his arms. "I still maintain that _you_ were the one to tell them."

Blaine sank down on the couch opposite theirs. "Awesome," he muttered to himself. "Do you think any of the other guys know?" he then asked his two friends.

Jeff started shaking his head, and Nick said, "No, I doubt that. Not that we know of, at least. And I don't think they would purposefully tell anyone, least of all New Directions."

"Okay," Blaine said, slowly standing up again. "Then I'll just… go." He definitely needed to lie down now.

"Did he seem angry?" he heard Nick ask as he stepped out of the room.

"Not really," Jeff answered. "But not thanks to you. Why did – "

Blaine sighed. As if today hadn't been bad enough already. When he arrived in his room, he sent Kurt a quick text to notify him of the fact that three more people knew and that they weren't happy about it. Still, no matter how the council felt about Kurt, and Blaine's involvement with him, Blaine would have to bring up the transfer thing again some time soon.

o-o-o-o-o

When Blaine woke up the next day, he noticed that Kurt had messaged him back the evening before, saying that he'd call Blaine later today. Blaine quickly opened a new message, to wish Kurt good luck today and to let him know if things at McKinley went awry, but that Blaine would call him that night after dinner, since the council was already not pleased with him. Luckily, he saw right before he headed to breakfast, Kurt seemed to understand and even wished him good luck as well.

Entering the cafeteria, Blaine instantly sought the other guys out. As usual, the Warblers had a table to themselves, and Blaine found himself stalling a little longer than he normally did when choosing his food. As he approached the table at last, excited murmurs broke out.

"Blaine!" Ethan cried out. "You're back! You're alive!"

Unsurprisingly, this caught the attention of many boys around them. Well, Blaine figured, it was kind of true. At least Wes hadn't chosen to rip him apart limp for limp. For now, the head council member just observed Blaine as he ate his breakfast, but when he was done, Wes said, "Blaine? A word, please."

Blaine reluctantly stood up and followed Wes out of the room, where the other boy got straight to the point. "You get one chance," he said. "This afternoon, we're going to run through both performances to see how they can be fitted together. If you're not up to par, we're holding auditions again."

Although he was grateful that at least, he'd get another chance, Blaine felt the need to point out to Wes, "That's going to cost us Sectionals."

"You getting cozy with the competition, especially during rehearsal time, might also cost us Sectionals," Wes countered. "I honestly thought you were more responsible than this, Blaine. I must say, I'm very disappointed in you."

With that, he walked back into the cafeteria, while Blaine continued standing there for a little longer. Wow. It had been a while since he'd heard that sentence. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Blaine hastily followed Wes back inside.

o-o-o-o-o

All throughout the day, Blaine kept sending Kurt texts to check up on him. Not that he didn't know Kurt might be pretending to be alright when he actually wasn't, but he wanted to make sure that Kurt knew that he could talk to someone, even if Blaine wasn't physically there.

He found himself growing more and more anxious as rehearsal approached. He knew that he knew the lyrics, and at least half of the steps to both songs – unless they'd changed everything yesterday – so he hoped he'd do fine.

Like Wes had told him that morning, they ran through both numbers without any interruptions, and considering the fact that all three council members were standing behind Blaine most of the time, Blaine had no idea what they were thinking. The fact that the rest of the group was behind him as well didn't help either; he could barely sneak a few looks sideways to see if he wasn't completely out of tune with the others. At least the vocal part of it was going pretty well, or so he'd like to think.

Without saying anything to Blaine, Wes made them work on the choreography for the rest of the hour, before dismissing everyone but Blaine.

"You're not picking up on the choreography very quickly," Wes stated with a frown.

"I know. I'll work on it," Blaine tried to convince him, figuring that pointing out that no one was giving him any pointers or advice wouldn't go over well with Wes at the moment.

"We'll just have to find some extra rehearsal time," Wes mused. "Then again, we've got all weekend, so you should be perfect by the end of that."

All weekend? Oh. "Kurt's dad's getting married this Saturday," Blaine told Wes. "They're… kind of expecting me to be there."

Wes closed his eyes and sighed. "Then you'd better hope you've got the choreography down before that time comes."

"So you're not taking my solos away, and I'm not getting kicked out?" Blaine asked, just to make sure.

Wes sent him an annoyed look. "Just go before you give me any ideas, Blaine."

o-o-o-o-o

So Blaine practised his steps some more before deciding to ask other Warblers for some pointers later on. The choreography wasn't that hard – most of it consisted of simple side-steps and the like – but somehow, it took Blaine some time figuring it out this time around.

Hoping he'd do better the next day, he flopped down on his bed. He didn't have an awful lot of homework today, and the stuff he'd been told had been covered the day before shouldn't be too hard to figure out either. Blaine was nothing if not prepared by now for the huge work load Dalton teachers liked to give them every day, so he would find a way to do it all in time. Now, however, he had a phone call to make.

Kurt picked up very quickly, but before he'd properly gotten a greeting across, Blaine asked, "How was today? Did he say anything? Do anything? Did anyone give you trouble?"

Kurt sighed audibly. "It was alright," he said in the end. "He didn't… try anything, and the only people giving me trouble were my teammates, for inviting the competition to the wedding."

"What?" Blaine frowned.

"We're going to be singing, Blaine," Kurt said. "It's a week before Sectionals, and you're in one of the competing choirs."

"So I'm not allowed to come?" Blaine asked, slightly disappointed. "I could always bring ear plugs and close my eyes or look the other way when you guys are performing."

"Dork," Kurt muttered, but he didn't sound angry or annoyed. "No, you can come. I told them that I wasn't going to cancel your invitation because of the competition being next week. Rachel suggested… or practically demanded that you should some songs sing as well, that that was only fair. Most people agreed with that."

"They want me to sing?" Blaine asked. "Sure, that's no problem."

"I figured as much," Kurt said. "I should warn you, though, most of them are rather excited to meet you, and they don't even know we're dating yet."

"Yeah, about that," Blaine muttered. "Apparently, Nick and Jeff were put under a lot of pressure yesterday, so now the council knows as well."

"That's what that text was about?" Kurt enquired, and Blaine nodded, before remembering he'd have to speak.

"Yes, it was. While they're happy that I've found someone, they're not happy that you're in a rival choir. Which brings me to the next, or should I say, previous matter – "

"Blaine," Kurt interrupted him, "I can't just transfer. I can't. And before you say anything, I know it's not safe here at McKinley. But with my dad's heart attack and Sectionals coming up, there's no way I could tell him and then just leave. You know we've only got twelve members…"

"Would you be willing to tell your dad about it after Sectionals?" Blaine asked, eager to reach whatever compromise possible.

"Perhaps," Kurt said. "Well, I think I could tell him about how the bullying has increased. Maybe that'll do the trick."

"At least you're not determined to stay there for another year and a half," Blaine said, feeling very relieved at that notion. "Wait. Does that mean something _has_ happened?"

"No, Blaine, nothing happened," Kurt replied dutifully. "I mean it. I've just been thinking. Dalton _will_ probably be a lot safer. It'll look better on my resume when applying to colleges, and if I leave after Sectionals, they've got another few months left to find a new member to replace me."

Choosing not to comment on Kurt's apparently firm belief that New Directions was going to win Sectionals, Blaine asked, "Should I start looking into possible scholarships for you?" He was fully prepared to pick up some pamphlets, search the school's website and visit the guidance counsellor about the matter.

"You don't have to do that," Kurt told him. With a sigh, he added, "Then again, I suppose there's no stopping you, is there? You really are amazing."

"I think you're mistaking me for you," Blaine replied, fully aware of just how sappy that must sound.

It took Kurt a few seconds to reply – Blaine hoped that was because he'd been smiling too hard before. "Anyway, the wedding. Are you sure you're okay with singing there?"

"Kurt, I'm in a Glee club as well," Blaine reminded him. "Of course I don't mind. I love performing." And he was certain that he'd be bending over backwards that Saturday just to impress Kurt. And maybe Kurt's friends. And family. But mostly Kurt himself. "What should I sing, though?" Blaine knew a lot of songs, yes, but he wasn't sure what kind of music Kurt, or rather, the happy couple, had in mind for the wedding.

"As long as you don't sing any… inappropriate songs, I think anything's fine," Kurt replied, a smile evident in his voice, which was good to hear. "Though I think you may also want to stay away from Bruno Mars' music. We're already doing that."

"_Marry you_?" Blaine asked.

"That's the one."

Recalling the lyrics to that particular song, Blaine chuckled. "How romantic."

"And oh-so-appropriate," Kurt agreed, and Blaine could almost see him rolling his eyes. "But it has to do with weddings, and it's up-beat, so it got the majority vote. I don't know what kind of music Carole's into, but my dad doesn't really… understand Broadway, so that was out of question anyway."

"So no Broadway," Blaine repeated, storing away that little bit of information. "Noted. But you know that Top Forty is my forte, right? That means that if you're allowed to do Bruno Mars, I won't have to feel bad about doing something like that as well."

"Just make sure it's not inappropriate," Kurt reminded him. "Officially, New Directions is in charge of the music during the wedding, so we'll probably be singing the entire time. I wouldn't be surprised if Rachel or anyone else suddenly decided they wanted to sing a duet-turned-duel with you, by the way."

"Do I get to sing with you?" Blaine asked. "Or at least a dance?"

"I think I'd like that," Kurt replied, before launching into the story of how he still had to teach both Finn and his dad to dance before the wedding, among other things. Blaine listened dutifully, wondering how people like Kurt actually existed and were willing to be a part of the lives of people like Blaine. It never ceased to amaze him.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N**: The wedding chapter! Even though half of it doesn't even happen at the wedding itself. Oh well. Anyway, the next chapter's already written and I keep trying to write chapter 14, which ought to be the final one if everything goes according to plan, so I hope to have this story wrapped up... relatively soon :P (things quickly become relative when it takes 14 months to post 12 chapters of a story, no?)

Anyway, hopefully, you'll like the chapter, and please leave a review at the bottom! :)

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Kurt asked for the umpteenth time.

Blaine nodded tersely. "I'm going to meet them anyway, right? Today or tomorrow, it's going to happen. Might as well get it over with, especially since you'll be much busier tomorrow."

"And your friends didn't mind either?" Kurt asked as they walked through the school towards the auditorium. "That you're here now, I mean."

"I think I've got all the steps down," Blaine replied. "Wes didn't object to me coming here now, and besides, we always manage to get out of at least a few classes and a couple of homework assignments the week before the competition, and there's normal rehearsal time. And Sunday, of course. I think we're still on schedule."

Kurt looked impressed. "We could learn a thing or two from you," he admitted. "Then again… I suppose we're on schedule as well. In a way." He stopped walking and indicated the doors they were standing in front of. "Anyway, we're here. Are you ready to face the madness?"

"As ready as can be," Blaine replied. "What was the cover story again? Do we just stick with the close friends thing?"

"Yes," Kurt replied. "That and the fact that my dad asked me at one point if I'd already invited you."

"Does he… know?" Blaine could've sworn that Kurt's father had at least some sort of idea of what was going on. He remembered the morning when he and Kurt had gotten together all too clearly.

"I didn't tell him and he didn't ask," Kurt responded. "He probably has an idea of what's going on, though."

At that moment, the door to the auditorium was thrown open. "What took you so long?" a guy with a mohawk demanded. "We were about to go look for you in case Karofsky or Azimio were giving you trouble again!"

Okay. Right. This must be… Puck?

Without thinking, he said, "Sorry." That caught Puck's attention, and Blaine quickly tried to come up with a cover-up. "That was my fault. I was running a little late." He stood as still as possible while Puck assessed him.

"This him?" Puck then asked Kurt.

"Yes, Puck, this is him," Kurt replied. "Blaine, meet Puck. Puck, Blaine."

Blaine smiled politely. "Hi. It's nice to meet you."

The other boy just eyed him for a few more seconds before turning around to where the rest of the group was standing. Blaine hadn't even noticed them before. "They're here!" he called out rather unnecessarily.

"We can see that, Noah," a short brunette replied as she came storming up the stairs. "Hi, you must be Blaine. I'm Rachel Berry, star of this group. I'm sure Kurt has told you all about me already, though. I'm going to be on Broadway after I graduate, so remember my name. You like Broadway, right?" Blaine nodded. "Good. You're also the competition, though, which is not good. You are not allowed to interrogate any of us about our set list and other plans for Sectionals or try to blackmail or charm someone into giving you that information. Is that clear?"

Blaine blinked. "Yeah… of course. I wasn't going to – "

"And no hurting Kurt," the girl quickly added. "I know you're just friends, but friends can hurt each other as well, so don't you dare hurt him."

"You know that it would be much more helpful if you tried to get that through those Neanderthals' heads, Rachel," Kurt told her. "They're much more prone to hurt me than Blaine is."

"Good," Puck butted back into the conversation. "Let's keep it that way."

"Come on," Kurt said, grabbing Blaine's forearm. "Let's introduce you to the rest of the group."

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine hadn't known what exactly to prepare, so he'd just rehearsed a couple of songs for the wedding. After meeting the rest of New Directions, Rachel directed him to the stage and made him sing one of his songs, so she could make sure his voice was good enough for her standards.

"You're good," she grudgingly admitted after he was done. "Not as good as us, though, but I'm sure the Warblers will be happy with the second place, right?"

"This is not about Sectionals, Rachel." Kurt sounded annoyed. "And of course he's good."

After that, the group split up in smaller groups, all rehearsing various songs and dances at the last minute. It was definitely interesting to watch.

"Aren't you going to try to get Kurt to sing a duet with you?" someone suddenly asked, and Blaine glanced to his left. Two blondes – Blaine thought they'd been introduced as Quinn and Sam – were leaning against the seats one row behind him.

Looking from them to where Kurt was at that moment and back, he shrugged. "I'm planning on doing that," he replied. "I doubt Rachel's willing to let him go now, though. I'll have to ask him later."

"You know," Quinn said pensively, "I'm glad Kurt's got a friend like you. A gay friend, I mean. You must understand what he's going through much better than any of us ever could."

"Sadly, yes," Blaine agreed. "It's good that he has some friends at this school as well, though. So… thanks, I guess, for looking out for him."

"We should've acted much sooner," Sam spoke up. "None of us noticed anything until it got out of hand."

"Didn't you only transfer here at the start of the school year, though?" Blaine asked, vaguely remembering Kurt mentioning something about that.

Sam shrugged. "Yes, but… still."

"They're doing what they can," Quinn said, smiling at Sam. And Blaine believed her. It just sucked that Karofsky was crazy enough to threaten to kill them. That wasn't exactly something the other boys could do something about.

After Quinn and Sam left to practise one of their songs, Mercedes sat down next to Blaine. "You're not wearing your uniform," she said pointedly, and Blaine chuckled.

"No, I'm not," he said. "I figured it wouldn't matter, but Kurt told me to wear something casual or I wouldn't be allowed in."

Mercedes nodded in understanding. "Knowing Rachel, she would've thought you were actually here as a Warbler, not as Kurt's friend, if you'd worn the uniform."

Blaine glanced over at the stage, where Rachel was now talking to her boyfriend, if Blaine was correct. She looked angry about something. "Glad I listened to him, then."

"So how've you been?" she asked. She sounded casual enough, but Blaine couldn't help but wonder if this was her way of asking whether he'd already realised his feelings for Kurt.

"I've been good," he replied, "and you?"

The next few minutes, they talked about all kinds of things, but then, Rachel came storming up to them, saying that she and Mercedes had a duet to rehearse. Blaine was just glad that Kurt's prediction that Rachel would force him to duet with her hadn't come true so far.

He finally stood up from his seat and walked back down. He talked briefly to Mike, an Asian boy who was mostly walking around and helping people if they couldn't get this or that dance step down.

Then, Kurt found him. "How about we practise that duet?" he asked, and Blaine couldn't agree fast enough.

o-o-o-o-o

The next day, Blaine – who'd slept on the couch again – was awoken rather early by Kurt, who was making breakfast. Blaine groaned and rolled over, slowly opening his eyes. He didn't see Kurt, but he knew it had to be him, seeing as the footsteps had come from downstairs.

He grabbed his phone from the table and peered at the screen. It was six in the morning. Setting the phone back on the table, Blaine fell back against the pillow. Definitely too early.

Then again, he was at his boyfriend's house while said boyfriend's father was still upstairs – asleep or not. They only saw each other a few times a week, and today would, most likely, be extremely busy with no time for just the two of them. With that thought in the back of his head, Blaine crawled out from under the covers, even though his body didn't like that movement all too much.

He walked into the kitchen, where he leaned against the kitchen table for a moment, observing Kurt. "Hey," he said in the end, moving closer. "Good morning."

Kurt seemed surprised – though pleased – to see him. "Good morning," he replied, giving Blaine a quick peck on the lips and yeah, Blaine could get used to this. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"You did," Blaine responded, "but it's fine. I probably won't see or talk to you a lot today, will I?"

Kurt shot him an apologetic glance. "Sorry, on both accounts. I'll be around, of course, and I'll try to keep you company, but I can't promise anything."

"No, that's fine," Blaine try to reassure him, stepping a little closer and glancing at the food Kurt was preparing. "I've met your friends and… I don't know. I don't mind just watching people. You're the wedding planner, and it's your dad's wedding. Of course you have a lot to do and a lot of people to talk to."

"At least if we could just say that you're my boyfriend, I could drag you along when talking to all the relatives and family friends," Kurt remarked. "Because I bet that something they'll all want to know about."

"Should I be prepared for that question as well?" Blaine asked. He was sure that he wouldn't mind getting that question at all once they went public, but it was a little bittersweet now, people asking whether he and Kurt were dating, and having to deny it. "Any family members or friends I need to be warned about?"

Kurt turned off the stove now and turned to fully face Blaine, their hands intertwining. "People may ask you that question, yes," he said slowly. "Some may be more persistent than others, and a select few can be so blunt, especially after having consumed some alcohol, to tell you that you're an idiot for not dating me."

Blaine grinned. "It's true, though. I would really be an idiot." He paused. "Has this happened before?" It sounded scarily specific, after all.

Kurt, now letting go of Blaine's hands in order to wrap his arms around his shoulders and pull Blaine even closer, nodded distractedly. "Just once," he elaborated, his voice muffled. "Last summer, when we first took Carole and Finn to a family gathering. It was mortifying."

Blaine chuckled, wrapping his own arms around Kurt. "I can't wait."

Kurt hummed and pressed their lips together. They moved leisurely at first, but just when Blaine went to deepen the kiss, there was a loud cough behind them and they jumped apart instantly.

"Dad," Kurt breathed. "We – uh…"

"We'll talk about this later," Mr Hummel – Burt, as he'd told Blaine to call him, though Blaine wasn't sure if that offer still stood – said, giving them both a pointed look. "After the wedding. Blaine, come over for dinner some time next week. We can discuss this then. Not that I didn't already know anyway." With that, he moved past them, towards the stove, to see what Kurt had cooked up.

"I – okay," Kurt replied, seeming rather surprised. In all honesty, so was Blaine; he was also quite relieved that he'd no longer be invited to the wedding, or something. "I wasn't completely done with that, dad. Just go get ready first. No – wait. Blaine, you can use my bathroom downstairs, if that's okay? Dad'll need the one upstairs once he has eaten."

Blaine nodded. "Yeah, sure. No – no problem." He hastily dashed out of the room, before realising that he was actually going to be using Kurt's bathroom. That wasn't really a direction he wanted his thoughts to head into just yet, though.

o-o-o-o-o

Many, many hours later, Blaine was sitting in the venue, watching Finn make a speech. According to Kurt, Finn had insisted on doing this, especially since Kurt had planned the entire wedding.

Blaine had been allowed to sit with the New Directions members. He didn't know anyone else there, even if he didn't know these people very well either, so he was grateful for that. He was kind of glad, though, that they hadn't put him with Rachel. She had tried to corner him a couple of times that day, asking what the Warblers were doing. For someone who didn't want anyone to spy on their own group, she certainly didn't repay the favour.

Instead, he'd talked to Mercedes, tried to avoid Santana's sometimes rude remarks and Puck's hard stares, and become very confused because of Brittany's comments and questions. At some point, he'd started talking about video games with Artie, and Puck had quickly joined in. For once, Blaine was glad that his friends always pestered him into playing.

The service before had been simply and sweet, in Blaine's opinion. He'd enjoyed the _Marry You_ performance quite a lot, too. The New Directions members certainly liked to dance, which, Blaine hoped, wouldn't cost the Warblers Sectionals next week.

By now, Finn was almost done with his speech, and Blaine was somewhat surprised to hear that the whole club had put together a number in Kurt's honour. He was glad that they'd done that, sure, but he hadn't seen it coming. And judging from the look on his face, neither had Kurt.

The other people at his table started harmonising, something Blaine could have expected. He'd seen their Journey medley, after all. Still, harmonising was the Warblers' thing, and if this group danced _and_ harmonised (though not as well as the Warblers, of course), Blaine didn't know how great a shot the Warblers had at winning the competition.

This wasn't the time to think about that, though. This was a celebration, and Blaine should be able to go without thinking about his own show choir for a couple of hours, shouldn't he?

Puck and Artie were now behind Finn, and Sam and Mike had gotten up from their seats as well. Soon, Blaine noticed that the song wasn't actually just for Kurt – Finn also sang it to Rachel and Carole. Seconds later, the girls also got up to join the boys on the dance floor, and Blaine glanced at Kurt, who was watching the whole thing unfold with disbelief that slowly morphed into happiness. This was, quite possibly, the first time anyone had sung to him, Blaine realised. Then it would be up to Blaine to make sure this happened more often from now on.

After Kurt, Burt and Carole joined the group on the dance floor, and that seemed to be the sign for everyone else to start dancing as well. Blaine glanced around curiously; he hadn't even realised that there were so many people here. Then again, he didn't know whether or not the bride and groom were still in touch with their deceased spouses' families and if they'd been invited as well.

When Finn was done, Rachel immediately took the stage. She took the microphone and called out, "Blaine? Where are – come here."

His face burning, Blaine walked up to her. "What's wrong?" he asked, and Rachel indicated the space next to her.

"We're singing a duet," she told him; luckily, she didn't have the mic in her hand anymore right now. "As Finn's girlfriend and Kurt's… best gay friend, we'll probably see each other a lot from now on, so we might as well get on. Plus, no matter how hard it is for me to admit it, you're actually a pretty decent singer. Now come on."

For a few seconds, Blaine wondered why she hadn't asked him about this yesterday. It wasn't as if he was going to decline or anything. Suddenly, it hit him; she must be putting him on the spot on purpose, to see if he was really that good a performer. And hey, who was Blaine to step down from that challenge?

Thus, he got pulled into singing three or four songs with Rachel, for both their parents-in-law, of sorts (even if Rachel herself, and, Blaine figured, Carole, didn't know it). Then Santana snatched Rachel's microphone away from her, and Blaine quickly handed his to Mercedes. Rachel had disappeared by now, so Blaine made his way back to his table, only to be grabbed by the arms when he wasn't even halfway there.

"Hey, stranger," Kurt greeted him, smiling.

Blaine grinned back. "Hey. I can't say I've attended a lot of weddings, but you definitely did a great job planning it all. Especially considering you had less than a week to do it."

Kurt ducked his head. "Thanks," he said quietly. "Come on, dance with me."

Blaine didn't need to be told twice, and he let Kurt pull him onto the dance floor. Even though it wasn't a slow song at all, Kurt seemed to want to slow dance.

"Is it not too boring for you?" Kurt asked, his mouth dangerously close to Blaine's ear, and Blaine wondered how many people they were actually convincing that they weren't dating.

"Not at all," Blaine replied.

The rest of the dance was spent in silence, and when the song was over, Kurt said, "Come on. I haven't even introduced you to Carole yet."

"Won't she be pretty busy right now?" Blaine asked worriedly.

Kurt shrugged. "We'll see. Oh – Carole!"

Kurt's stepmother momentarily turned away from the people she was talking to, and she hugged Kurt tightly, muttering things Blaine couldn't quite hear. When she let go of Kurt, she turned to Blaine. "You must be Blaine," she said. "Kurt and Burt have told me all about you."

Blaine raised an eyebrow at Kurt, who just rolled his eyes playfully in response. "Yes, that's me," he replied. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs – "

"Just call me Carole, dear," she told him.

They talked for a couple of minutes, before Carole turned back to the relatives she'd been talking to prior to Kurt and Blaine interrupting them. Kurt had to go do some things for a short time, but when Blaine sat down at a table, he was soon joined by Artie, who'd brought along Sam and Mike this time. Their girlfriends were currently singing something that sounded suspiciously like the Spice Girls, but Blaine could be mistaken.

Once Blaine got to know the New Directions members a little better, time flew. He sang and danced some more, but he also talked to them a lot. Sometimes, another guest would ask him if he was dating Kurt, and once, what must be one of Finn's cousins tried to hit on him very obviously. It was quite an interesting experience, though not one Blaine desperately wanted to repeat.

Burt and Carole disappeared some time during the party – to Carole's house, Kurt had told him, so Finn would be staying at Puck's – and when Kurt told Blaine that he wanted to go home as well, Blaine was more than okay with that. He needed to get up early the next morning to be back at Dalton in time for rehearsal, after all.

"I'm sure half of them already knows we're not actually 'just friends'," Blaine commented as they walked to Kurt's car. When they'd said their goodbyes to Kurt's friends, some of them had given them very significant looks, and Blaine was sure that all the duets and dancing they'd done hadn't helped their case much.

"Let them think whatever they want," Kurt said, opening the car door for Blaine. "It's only one week until Sectionals, after all. I doubt it matters a whole lot now. At least they liked you."

Blaine nodded. "That doesn't mean that they also like the fact that we're dating," he pointed out, remembering what Wes had told him just a few days ago.

Kurt grabbed his hand briefly before turning back to the steering wheel. "As long as _we_ like the fact that we're dating."

* * *

**A/N**: So, what did you think? :) Let me know, please review!


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**: So... I don't really have a lot to say here. Enjoy, and please review! :)

* * *

That night, they (accidentally on purpose) fell asleep on Kurt's bed together, and Blaine was immensely grateful that Burt didn't return from Carole's place until he was already on his way back to Dalton.

He had just enough time to put his bag back in his room before he had to go to Warblers practice. Almost half of the group was already there when he arrived, and Wes looked surprised, although he seemed to be trying to hide it.

"Blaine," he greeted him, "you made it."

"Of course, Wes," Blaine replied. He wasn't going to bail out on the Warblers again, especially this close to Sectionals. Their biggest competition might still be procrastinating (which, in all honesty, made Blaine wonder why Rachel had been so adamant that he didn't question them about their set list), but the Warblers worked with a tight schedule. Blaine thought he might go crazy if he were to suddenly become a New Directions member. He hoped the change would be easier for Kurt.

"So… how was the wedding?" Wes asked, and Blaine sighed. Standing up from the chair he'd just sat down on, he walked over to the council table, where David and Thad were just setting everything up.

"It was fun," Blaine replied. "They were all nice enough once we got past the obvious 'you're the competition' stage. They're also great performers, every single one of them, and while I'm almost one hundred percent sure that they haven't started rehearsing for Sectionals yet, they can really put together some good performances in a short time."

"They haven't started rehearsing yet?" Thad looked like he was going to be ill.

"We should almost win just because we're obviously putting much more work and time in this than they are," David remarked.

"Sadly, that's not how it works." Wes frowned. "We'll just have to work even harder. This is the first time in years that we're not up against Vocal Adrenaline for Sectionals, and if we don't win now, we might as well give up."

"You're a senior, Wes," Blaine reminded him. "What the Warblers do or don't do next year doesn't really concern you."

Wes inclined his head in agreement, before saying, "You can sit back down, Blaine. I think everyone's here. We should really start rehearsing."

o-o-o-o-o

The next day, Blaine walked to breakfast with Jeff. Nick had, apparently, stayed up far too long and was now staying in bed until he had to go to class. Jeff, on the other hand, was wide awake. He skipped and danced and hummed on their way down, and Blaine mentally shook his head at his friend.

"What are you so happy about?" he asked eventually, when Jeff almost crashed into another freshman. "Did Amanda finally agree to set you up with that blond friend of hers?"

Jeff shook his head happily. "No, that's not it. I'm over her, Blaine. No, I'm just very excited to finally meet Kurt this Saturday."

Blaine blinked and eyed Jeff apprehensively. "Come again?"

Jeff gave him a confused look. "You know, your boyfriend Kurt? The one you're trying to keep a secret for the world? I can't wait to meet him at Sectionals this weekend."

"I know who Kurt is, Jeff," Blaine replied. "I just… didn't think you'd be this enthusiastic about meeting him. Saturday is still five days from now."

"He's your first boyfriend, Blaine," Jeff exclaimed, and Blaine quickly shushed him. He didn't need the entire hallway to figure that out; who knew how fast word got back to McKinley. "And the Warblers are all like brothers, aren't we? Of course we want to meet him." Before Blaine could reply, Jeff continued. "Besides, I heard through the grapevine that you've been gathering all kinds of pamphlets and information about scholarships, which led Nick and me to believe that that boyfriend of yours might be coming here at some point. So the sooner we get to know him, the better."

"Where did you hear that?" Blaine asked, alarmed.

"So it's true?" Jeff asked gleefully. "He's coming here? Awesome. And Nick saw some information bulletin about it in your bag, and David noticed you talking to the secretary a few days ago. Something about the tuition. We doubted it's for you, so…"

"He hasn't even discussed it with his dad yet," Blaine muttered.

"Oh." Jeff looked a little confused, but shook it off. "Well, then we'll just have to wait and see, right?"

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine was busier with his schoolwork than he would've liked, and he knew that the Warblers rehearsals were to blame. Even though they were already as perfect as they could be, Wes insisted on having multiple rehearsals a day, so that they often spent hours perfecting songs that couldn't get anymore perfect.

Tuesday evening, he finally had some spare time to Skype Kurt again. His boyfriend looked a lot more put together than Blaine felt, and when he voiced this thought, Kurt cracked a smile.

"I already told you that the McKinley curriculum isn't challenging in the least," he replied. "That might… take some time to get used to."

Blaine grinned back. "So you're definitely coming to Dalton, then?"

"If dad lets me," Kurt replied. "Which, of course, also depends on whether I can apply to a scholarship or not."

"You haven't talked to him yet, have you?" Blaine asked, leaning forward to adjust the camera a little before sitting back in his chair again.

Kurt shook his head minutely. "I was hoping we could discuss that when you come over for dinner," he admitted. "He promised that Carole and Finn won't be here that night, too."

Blaine mentally went over all the practices Wes had planned for them the next few days. "I could come tomorrow," he said. Some of the Warblers had complained about not being able to go home the past weekend, so the council had allowed them to do so on Wednesday after class, so there was no rehearsal then.

Kurt smiled. "I'll tell my dad."

Blaine almost didn't dare ask. "Has anyone given you any trouble at school?"

"Not… really," Kurt replied carefully. "Some name-calling, but whoever's with me at that moment makes sure nothing else happens." He sighed. "However, Rachel did tell Mr Schue exactly who you were and I don't believe he was very pleased with the explanation. He obviously heard you sing at the wedding and wondered where you'd hidden away all this time. When Rachel told him you were actually a Warbler, he wasn't happy." Kurt rolled his eyes. "He asked me why I invited you to the wedding, so I told him that I was free to invite whomever I wanted to my dad's wedding as long as my dad was okay with it."

"Sorry," Blaine said almost automatically. "I didn't want to get you in trouble."

"Nothing I can't handle," Kurt assured him. "Besides, most of the club seemed to like you, so that's good."

"Jeff can't wait to meet you," Blaine said. "And I doubt he's the only one."

Kurt's eyes grew wide. "Should I be scared?"

"It should be okay," Blaine replied. "They're not really intimidating or anything, just overly enthusiastic."

They continued talking for over an hour, before both boys had to work on their homework. Blaine already looked forward to seeing Kurt in person again the next day, even though they _would_ probably be having a somewhat serious chat with Kurt's father.

o-o-o-o-o

"Come on in." Kurt held open the door for Blaine, who'd just arrived at the Hummel house. Blaine allowed himself to quickly kiss Kurt before looking around nervously.

"Is your dad here already?" he asked, and Kurt shook his head.

"He was still at the shop, last time I checked. He said he'd be here soon, though." He walked towards the kitchen, where, Blaine assumed, he'd been putting dinner together.

"Do you need help with anything?" Blaine asked as he, too, walked into the kitchen. When Kurt shook his head, he asked, "How do you want to do this? Your dad's probably going to interrogate us about… well, our relationship. But after that?"

Kurt was silent for a moment as he worked. "Maybe he'll bring it up himself. You know, ask about the bullying, or ask if the other Glee guys are staying true to their words. Especially Finn. Or perhaps he'll ask you how school is and you could mention the zero tolerance policy. There should be a way to bring it up, I think."

Blaine nodded pensively. He was itching to help Kurt out, but after a stern look from his boyfriend, he finally settled for slumping down at the table and just observing him.

Soon, Kurt's father came home. As soon as the front door opened, Blaine sat up straight, figuring that almost lying at the table might not be the best way to start off the evening. However, Mr Hummel didn't really pay attention to Blaine's way of sitting; instead, he sniffed once and glanced at what Kurt was making.

"Are you making us eat that healthy stuff again?" he asked.

Kurt gave him a pointed look. "Of course, dad. You need to eat healthy, remember?"

His father crossed his arms. "I thought you would make something more… festive since Blaine's here."

"This is festive," Kurt protested. "But it's healthy as well."

Blaine watched the scene in front of him with interest; it never ceased to amaze him how accepting Kurt's father was, and how easy their bickering was.

Once dinner was served, Blaine relaxed a little bit while conversation flowed freely. At first, Kurt's father did most of the talking – about the shop, and about the house he and Carole were thinking of buying. He must've noticed something was up, however, as he turned to Kurt and asked, "What's wrong? Normally, you'd be telling me off for even thinking of buying a house without showing it to you and Finn first."

Kurt gulped. "It's nothing, dad," he muttered, not catching Blaine's (or his father's) eye. "I'm fine. Sorry."

"No, you're not," his father said even before Blaine could say so. "Are they still giving you trouble at that school? I thought Finn said – "

"He did," Kurt hastily interrupted him. "And the guys are… there, most of the time."

Blaine almost choked on his food. "Most of the time?" he croaked out once he could speak again.

Kurt shrugged it off. "They can't _always_ be there."

Blaine frowned. Kurt hadn't told him about this before. "Has anything happened?" Kurt's father asked suspiciously.

"Not… really," Kurt muttered. "Look, it's not important who did what. Just – Blaine's been looking into scholarships for me. For Dalton."

Blaine raised his eyebrows at Kurt, who suddenly seemed very interested in his food. "Blaine?" Mr Hummel asked.

"Yeah, I have," Blaine replied, finally looking away from Kurt. "Because Kurt's getting bullied at McKinley, and… Dalton would be much safer."

"So you want to transfer to Dalton," Mr Hummel said, and Kurt nodded – though it could've also been a shrug. "Okay. If Blaine can tell me a bit more about the scholarships, I'm all for it. But only if you tell me what these kids have been doing to you."

"Just… calling me names, shoving me around a bit," Kurt replied quietly. "Slushies. Stuff like that."

"Nothing else?" his father prompted, and Kurt shifted uncomfortably.

"There's one guy who's… worse than all the others," he admitted.

"Karofsky." It wasn't a question, but a statement, which Blaine only realised after he'd said it.

Again, Kurt nodded. "He likes to single me out and intimidate me, I guess. It's like he has a sixth sense for knowing when I'm on my own."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Blaine blurted out.

"Why didn't you tell _me_?" Kurt's father echoed.

"It just didn't seem important," Kurt said. "He hasn't – never mind."

"Hasn't what?" Mr Hummel asked sharply.

"Just tell him, Kurt," Blaine said quietly.

"He threatened to kill us last week," Kurt said.

"'Us'?" Mr Hummel turned to Blaine. "Were you with him?"

Blaine nodded furtively, but didn't look away. As Kurt explained just why they hadn't said anything, Blaine couldn't help but feel relieved. At least they didn't have to ignore the issue anymore; someone else now knew what had happened.

"Okay," Kurt's father said in the end, after Kurt had repeatedly told him that they didn't want anyone, least of all his father, to worry about them. "So… you're not going back there. Not for school, at least. If I'm going to do something about this, though, I'm gonna need you to be there as well." He rubbed his forehead. "I just… need some time to progress this." He got up from the table. "We'll continue this conversation in an hour or so. In the meantime, no funny business."

When he was gone, Kurt let out a deep breath. "Okay," he echoed his father's words. "That went better than expected." He swallowed. "Let's – I'll clean up and then we can go downstairs or something, alright?"

"I'll help you." Blaine was out of his seat before he finished speaking, but Kurt shook his head firmly.

"You're a guest," he reminded Blaine.

"You already cooked," Blaine retorted. "Besides, I don't think I can just… sit there now."

Kurt observed him silently as he placed the dishes in the sink. "He's just a bit overwhelmed," he said quietly. "He'll – it'll be fine."

Blaine shot him a look. "Why didn't you tell me?" he repeated his earlier question. "I've asked you multiple times this week if Karofsky or someone else was bothering you, and you never mentioned – "

"I just didn't want you to worry about me," Kurt replied. "I can take care of myself, Blaine."

"I know," Blaine said. "But still – I worry about you anyway. I'm sure it was in the job description as your boyfriend." He sighed. "At least you're not going back there."

"At least I'm not going back there," Kurt agreed, sighing.

They cleaned up in silence, and only when they were downstairs, to Kurt's room, Kurt spoke again.

"I think some of my teammates are suspecting something, you know. Just like you suspected"

Blaine blinked up at him from where he was sitting on the bed. "Oh?"

"It's probably about the wedding," Kurt said. "We did dance and sing together an awful lot."

Blaine grinned. "We did."

Kurt smiled back before sitting down next to Blaine. "You know, we still have almost half an hour before the hour is up."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "You have my attention."

Kurt laughed at that and bumped Blaine's shoulder with his own. "Come on," he said. "Let's lie down for a bit."

o-o-o-o-o

This time, they did get busted, but Kurt's dad didn't seem too angry. After all, they weren't really doing anything, except talking quietly with their heads a little closer together than would be strictly necessary.

They sat down in the living room, where Kurt was berated for not saying anything earlier. When Mr Hummel then asked them about Dalton and potential scholarships, Blaine excused himself for a moment to grab the information he'd gathered about the subject from his coat.

"I'll have a look at these later," Mr Hummel promised, then gave them both a steady look. "Now, about what I saw this weekend." Blaine swallowed, his heart racing. "When were you planning on telling me about that?"

"We didn't want to keep it a secret," Kurt hastily said. "Not – not from you. We've been trying not to let our friends know, but a handful of them already do anyway. Sorry, dad. I wasn't sure how you'd… react when you found out."

"Well, I'm glad you found someone, Kurt," his father replied. "And as long as you're safe… not just in _that_ respect, I hope you're not doing that yet… It's your first relationship – right, Blaine? It won't be easy, and you probably will end up hurting each other somewhere along the way, whether intentionally or not. Just remember to… cherish each other and what you have together. Because you matter, both of you do."

"Thanks, sir," Blaine replied, no trusting himself to say more.

"What did I tell you about calling me that?" Kurt's dad asked, and Blaine felt his face heat up.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Thanks, dad," Kurt said. "Can you… not tell Carole just yet, though? I don't want Finn finding out already. We'll tell them after the competition."

"Of course."

o-o-o-o-o

Blaine had had to leave shortly after that, and by the time he made it back to Dalton, he almost immediately went to bed. The next two days would be filled with rehearsals – Blaine began to think that Wes and the other council members had started taking advice from Vocal Adrenaline – and Blaine needed his sleep for that.

Maybe he could even convince them to let him serenade Kurt with one of their songs. Of course, no one in the audience would notice, most likely, but Kurt probably would. So would his friends, but that didn't matter a whole lot anymore. They'd be at Sectionals already, and after that, they'd no longer be competition, whoever won. Blaine fell asleep with a smile on his face. Yes, he was going to sing to Kurt whether his friends allowed him to do so or not. Kurt more than deserved it.

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? :) Let me know, please leave a review!


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**: So, final chapter :) (It's about time, right? I first posted this story almost 15 months ago...) Though, I almost feel like this chapter calls for an epilogue of sorts. Maybe I'll write one, but I'm not sure at all and if that happens, don't expect it to be anytime soon. Still, I'd like to thank everyone who's stuck by this story for so long (or just came in along the way). This wouldn't have happened without you (partly because this was first a one-shot and then a two-shot, but due to popular demand, it got extended, but let's not ruin the moment, okay?). So, thank you :)

Two little somethings about this one: I know we only saw HSS at Sectionals when it comes to the Warblers' set list, but that doesn't mean it was their only song (right? At Sectionals in season 1, it's implied that ND also sang _Somebody to love_, but because we'd already seen that, it wasn't shown again). So that's why they're singing two songs here (though I must admit that it's also because I just like having Blaine serenade Kurt :P). Also, there's something else in here that's sort of become a Glee fandom Klaine-getting-together trope by now... yeah. I just couldn't resist throwing that in. At least it's a little different from usually?

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter :) Please leave a review when you're finished!

* * *

Blaine wasn't very surprised when Nick and Jeff seemed to support his plan immediately. Still, he was quite grateful as well. The other guys proved to be a little more difficult to convince.

"Why should we serenade the competition?" a younger Warbler asked, clearly confused. "Are we trying to catch them off guard so their performance won't be as good as they planned?"

"No, we're not serenading the competition," Wes replied. "Sorry, Blaine, but that's one of the most ridiculous idea you've ever had."

"But Kurt's coming here after Sectionals!" Nick exclaimed. "It'll be like our welcome for him!"

"Kurt's coming here after Sectionals?" David repeated, and Blaine shot Jeff a dirty look. If he hadn't told Nick… Then again, he must've been quite an idiot himself for believing that Jeff would keep something like this from his best friend. "So that's official?"

"Yeah, it is," Blaine confirmed. "Well, his dad's going to look into everything and handle the transfer as soon as possible. If everything goes right, Kurt should start here some time next week."

"But he's still competing?" Wes asked curiously.

"As far as I know, he is," Blaine responded. "His friends don't know yet. And the reason he's only transferring here next week is because he didn't want to bail on his friends right before Sectionals."

"At least we can see for ourselves if he's possible Warblers material," Thad remarked, shooting his fellow council members a questioning look.

"The song is rather inappropriate to serenade a potential new member with, though," Wes said, turning back to Blaine.

"Then again, Blaine will probably sing the song to the guy anyway even if you don't allow him to," Trent butted into the conversation. When Wes shot him a slightly annoyed glance, he just shrugged.

"We'll get back to you on this," Wes decided after a few seconds. When Blaine walked out of the rehearsal room, past Wes, the council member said, "I'm starting to regret letting you keep both those solos, to be honest."

Blaine just smiled back uneasily, because honestly, what was he supposed to say to that?

o-o-o-o-o

Saturday arrived sooner than Blaine had expected, and he was currently torn between feeling nervous about the competition and feeling happy about seeing Kurt again. That, however, led him to thinking about telling Kurt's friends about both their relationship and Kurt's transfer, which made him nervous again.

When they arrived at the venue, Blaine shot Kurt a quick text to wish him good luck. After all, Wes had made it clear that once they entered the venue, their phones should be turned off because they needed to concentrate. They were all herded towards their green room, where Wes made some last-minute announcements and gave them a pep talk.

Far too soon, they were finding their places in the audience, ready to see what the Hipsters would perform. Blaine looked around the audience, but couldn't seem to find Kurt or any other New Directions members, which was kind of odd – after all, apart from the Warblers, they must be the only group of teenagers all dressed the same way.

The song the Hipsters performed was nice to hear, Blaine thought, but it wasn't really show choir material. The Hipsters were a choir, yes, but Blaine failed to see the 'show' aspect of their title. They stood even stiller than the Warblers were used to standing, and that was saying quite something.

Suddenly, Blaine saw something moving out of the corner of his eye – Rachel came walking in hastily, and Blaine's eyes followed her to where she was headed. He'd now found New Directions, but Kurt was probably sitting in the middle of the group.

When the song ended, Blaine clapped along politely with the rest of the audience, before being herded out by Wes. This was it.

As they entered their greenroom, it was in a flurry of movements, and soon enough, they were on stage, waiting for the curtain to open. Eventually, it did, and while the rest of the Warblers started harmonising, Blaine tried to find Kurt. Again, he had no such luck.

Only when they were almost at the first chorus, Blaine caught his boyfriend's eyes, and he could just _feel_ his smile widen. Kurt eyed Blaine curiously as the latter sang _Teenage Dream_ as he had never sung the song before. The rest of the Warblers seemed to notice Blaine's extra energy; they, too, started moving less stiffly. At the end of the song, everyone was clapping much louder than they had for the Hipsters, which, Blaine supposed, was great. He grinned when he saw that Kurt had jumped up, and some other New Directions members had followed his lead.

Then, it was time for the next song, and while Blaine wasn't sure if _Hey, Soul Sister_ was a good song to serenade someone with, he made sure to glance at Kurt every now and then. He'd never appreciated the role of the lead singer as much as he did now; besides, he loved the stage, he realised now. Smiling broadly, the Warblers finished, and now, nearly everyone in the audience got up to applaud them.

"That was amazing," Jeff remarked the second he stepped back into the greenroom. "If we don't win this thing… the votes were rigged, I'm telling you."

"Who could've known about the extra impulse Kurt's mere presence could give Blaine here?" David added, grinning. "No, great job, everyone."

"Fantastic job," Wes said. "Now, we've got about twenty minutes before New Directions has to perform, so if you want to get a drink or need to use the restroom, you can do so now. In fifteen minutes, we're going back to our seats."

Figuring that the bar area would be his best bet to run into Kurt, Blaine made his way there. He hadn't counted on all the other people from the audience going there as well now, leaving Blaine to look around frantically for any sign of his boyfriend or another New Directions member.

He couldn't even make his way through the people quickly, as various people complimented him on his performance. Still, he felt glad that they'd liked it enough to keep him standing so they could tell him just that. Most people moved along rather quickly, but Kurt was still nowhere to be seen.

That was, until another person tapped him on the shoulder and said, "You were great up there! Really, amazing."

Blaine could've kissed him, or even just hugged him, but figured that that might not be the smartest idea, considering the fact that they were in public. So instead, he settled for a, "Hey!"

Kurt smiled back. "Hey."

"Shouldn't you be in your greenroom right now, preparing for your own performance?" Blaine asked, and Kurt sighed.

"They're fighting again," he replied. "Rachel found out recently that Finn slept with Santana last year – they weren't together at the time, but he told her earlier this year that he hadn't slept with Santana – and Artie and Tina think that Brittany and Mike are cheating on them with each other. To top it all off, Quinn's completely stressed out because the last time she was on stage for a competition, her water broke right after."

"Uh." Blaine frowned. "Explain that to me later, okay?"

"Of course," Kurt promised, before smirking. "So, I'm your teenage dream?"

Blaine laughed awkwardly, ducking his head, before nodding. "Of course. What did you think?"

"I don't know," Kurt responded, shrugging. "Just – you know. Since we're not exactly at that stage…"

"That doesn't mean you don't make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream," Blaine said. "Anyway, are you ready to drop the bombs later? The Warblers kind of already know. About the transfer, that is, though I wouldn't doubt that the other thing is also common knowledge at Dalton by now."

"You can't keep anything a secret, can you?" Kurt asked, sounding slightly exasperated. Still, he was smiling.

"My friends are just too curious," Blaine retorted.

"We should tell your parents, too," Kurt suddenly said, and Blaine stilled.

"They're not around right now," he replied. "They'll be back from wherever they are around Christmas."

Kurt nodded in understanding. "Okay," he said. "Then we'll tell them when they're back."

Knowing that there was no way of getting out of this, Blaine consented. When Kurt suddenly realised that he should really be getting back to the greenroom, Blaine quickly wished him good luck and watched him go, before making his way towards his own greenroom.

Once everyone was seated again, the final Glee club of the day was announced, but no one was on stage. According to Wes and David, this was a typical New Directions tactic – whoever had a solo would come in through the back, and then the rest of the group would either follow or be standing behind the curtain already.

They ended up being right – Sam and Quinn came in through the back, singing a sugary sweet version of _Time Of My Life _that Wes scoffed at. He admitted, though, that it was a smart move to make those two sing this song.

When they reached the stage, the curtains opened, and rest of the group was standing there, moving along. After the song ended and the group had been rewarded with as much applause (if not more) as the Warblers had gotten, it was time for Santana to sing a solo. Blaine felt momentarily confused; he'd really gotten the impression that Rachel usually sung the competition solos – and duets, and basically anything – but she wasn't singing any kind of solo today.

The song was good, though, and Mike and Brittany's dance moves were amazing as well. They were definitely tough competition for the Warblers. The audience made it very clear that they loved them as well, much to Wes' chagrin.

"There's nothing we can do about it now," David reminded his friend when they walked back to where the greenrooms were.

When they all made to head into the Warblers' greenroom, Blaine shuffled on his feet uncomfortably. "I'm just going to… go there," he said, nodding towards where he suspected that the New Directions members were at the moment.

"We'll come," Wes decided, instantly herding all the Warblers out of the room again. "We don't want them to maim you or anything, after all."

"You're not helping, Wes," Blaine pointed out. Soon, they stopped at an open door, and Blaine peeked in.

"Blaine!" That was Rachel. The girl got up from where she was sitting (as far away from both Finn and Santana as possible, Blaine realised) and stalked over towards them, the rest of the group watching curiously. "What are you doing here?" Then, she noticed the other Warblers. "Did you decide to come over and congratulate us already? You were alright, you probably beat the Hipsters, but we were better, even though they wouldn't let me sing."

"No, Rachel, that's not why we're here," Blaine replied cautiously. "May we come in? We already performed, both groups did, so we're not really competition anymore, right?"

"Fine," Rachel stepped aside, and the Warblers huddled in. "Then what are you here for?"

Some of the other New Directions members had gotten up from their seats as well, either to back up Rachel or in order to hear what was being said.

"Well – " Blaine started, unsure of how Kurt wanted this to happen.

"There are some things we need to tell you," Kurt saved him, suddenly standing by his side. "Though, if what I hear is true, the Warblers already know most of what's going on."

"Let me guess," Santana interrupted. She was one of the few people who'd stayed in her seat. "You two are actually doing the dirty and those other prep school boys have walked in on you one too many times."

Blaine stared at the girl, trying to figure out whether she was serious or not.

"No!" Kurt exclaimed, his face adorably red. "We're not… doing the dirty, Santana. But yes, we are – we are dating, if that's what you were implying."

Santana just shrugged, not seeming to interested in the matter, but Rachel pursed her lips. Before she could say anything, though, Puck exclaimed, "Ha! I knew it!"

Finn groaned and reached into his pocket, took out twenty dollars and handed it to Puck. "Wait," Kurt said, alarmed. "You bet on us?"

"Pretty much, yeah. It was pretty damn obvious after the wedding last weekend," Santana said, handing Quinn ten dollars. "What? I'd really expected you to have tapped that already, Kurt."

Both Rachel and Tina were handing cash to Mercedes, and Sam handed both Mike and Artie some money. Kurt shot glared at them.

"I still can't believe you would do that, Kurt," Rachel said. "Especially since you know what happened last year. I know you 'met before the Sectionals competition was revealed', but you didn't have to jump in a relationship like that."

"We didn't – " Kurt started, but Wes interrupted him.

"We weren't too happy about it either, actually," he said, looking from Kurt and Blaine to Rachel. "But we're glad Blaine found someone. And they're no longer competition after this anyway."

"So why did you know?" Mercedes asked Wes before turning to Kurt. "Why did you tell them but not us?"

"I didn't tell them anything," Kurt replied, and Blaine's eyes widened slightly.

"I only told Nick and Jeff because they were planning on driving to McKinley to have a little chat with Kurt about… leading me on, or something. They told the council and somehow, everyone found out."

"We would've been happy for you, you know," Mercedes said. "Well, most of us anyway."

Rachel scoffed at the looks she was getting from her teammates. "I'm happy for them," she protested. "I just don't think it's smart. Who knows how it could've ended – you could've had your heart broken, Kurt, and all our secrets would be spilled and – "

"We don't even talk about Glee club," Kurt said. "Plus, everything worked out fine, didn't it?"

"Yes, it did," Rachel admitted. "We're going to win, after all. And next time, I'm getting the solos I deserve."

"You already did," Santana sneered. "You deserve none, so you got none."

Before Rachel got the chance to fight back, Kurt said, "There's something else I have to tell you." Instinctively, Blaine grabbed his hand, keeping his eyes on Kurt the whole time.

"What is it?" Finn, who'd been silent up until now, asked, sounding slightly suspicious.

Kurt smiled briefly before saying, "McKinley is not exactly… safe. I think we all know that, but… it's getting worse. For me, that is. I know you're trying to help, but you can't always be there, and it's not your battle to fight either. So I will be transferring to Dalton as soon as possible. I didn't want you guys to have to pull out of the competition because of me, so I stayed, but… I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry."

"What do you mean, you're transferring?" Rachel demanded. "You're – what?"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Puck wanted to know. "We would've helped you, you know we would've."

"Does this have to do with Karofsky?" Finn asked. "We'll – "

"No, Finn, Puck," Kurt said. "You don't have to do anything. You shouldn't have had to in the first place. So, I've made up my mind. Dalton is much safer for me. And it's not like I'll never see you anymore."

"Kurt," Mercedes said quietly, and Kurt shot her an apologetic smile.

"We'll need to have a goodbye party," Rachel decided and Blaine knew, somehow, that the final word had not been said yet about the matter. "Tomorrow. My dads probably won't have a problem with it, they know how hard being gay can be. And – "

"Guys, we need to – " New Directions' director came in all of a sudden, and he looked around the greenroom confusedly. "What are the Warblers doing here?"

"That's a very long story, Mr Schue," Rachel instantly replied. "We'll tell you on the way back to school. Have the judges made their decision yet?"

"Yeah, that's what I came here for," the director said. "To come get you."

"Fantastic," Rachel said, striding forward and grabbing Kurt's other arm, before turning to Blaine briefly. "We have a lot of things to discuss, Blaine Warbler. But first, we're going to take that first place trophy home."

As she dragged Kurt away, the rest of New Directions following in their wake, Wes clapped Blaine's shoulder. "That went better than expected, didn't it?"

"I think this was just the top of the iceberg," Blaine muttered back. "Now I'll be getting all those 'don't hurt him' talks and interrogations, and… so will you, probably. From what I hear, Puck's been taking his role as Kurt's personal bodyguard very seriously, and so have the other guys. Plus, if we happen to be invited to that goodbye party or if they decide to randomly show up at Dalton, we'll have to survive the combined craziness of them and Nick and Jeff, and all the others."

"But it's all for a good cause," Wes reminded him, steering him out of the room and towards the backstage area.

Once there, Blaine caught Kurt's eye, and they grinned almost simultaneously. Blaine couldn't help but be immensely grateful for the fact that his car had broken down when it had. It had proven to be a fun ride so far, and Blaine looked forward to see where this relationship would take them.

* * *

**A/N**: So... what do you think? :) Let me know, please review!


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